by Tracie Nichols
Spring Breaks
Sap forced to rise.
To relinquish its sugar
for tiny tight-furled leaves.
Chickadees trace
droplets of song from
bough to genuflecting bough.
I roll the sweetness
of life across
my tongue—
sip new air and
speak rivers and
mountains.
Half the world
is breaking,
how can you not be?
The Mercy of Leaves
Chickadees trace droplets
of song from bough to
genuflecting bough—
a reverence of sound
and movement.
Out along the corrugated
edge of awareness
—life from death from life—
the mercy of leaves,
a million verdant voices aligned.
Everything that matters
is here.