in the rain in the autumn when a new life has taken root in the husk of ancestry
i spend my days reading letters scrawled on brick left behind by my mother’s dreaming
the ginkgoes of philadelphia were planted with high hopes
higher fruit heavy on limb rotting in place attracting
cider-hungry binging insects paid up front to covet
seeds across state lines to lantern-lit crop circles fertile with patience
in the inane moments taken hold in innocuous towers the maidenhair unfurls
and i refuse to leave this place the same and i refuse to leave this place the same
the ginkgoes of philadelphia a solitary order refute consolidation
deemed a mistake by the city a mistake of their own greed
my mother’s shade in the heat of misplaced anger
a mistake felled in memory
thunder as each berry lands
in the leaves brushed beside the curbs exploding out from gutters
i see moths stretched wide and eyes unblinking and the river as it meets the sea
and i am my mother humming softly
tracing cracks in the sidewalk
ants to their burrows
blades of grass to the embrace of earth
their roots wound and wound again
in the dirt beneath
the ginkgoes of philadelphia
in migrations to come
in the dreamless nights
under soundless skies
i am my mother heavy on limb
Artwork by: Alfred Brehm
