Trees Know
Bare branches of winter trees
sway in wind, like animals
bobbing their heads,
listening to music of breezes,
telling stories to their neighbors.
Trees know who tilled the soil
before this house was built.
Trees know earth is warming
from human pursuits.
How long have they
been trying to tell us?
Sudden Downpour
Temperature and winds rise,
trees shake their branches,
leaves turn undersides up against the wind.
Thunder reverberates for sound effects.
Rain comes straight down,
then caught by winds, comes at angles
like sheets whipped in frenzy.
A spark of lightning, more thunder,
the storm now directly overhead.
Leaves dance in the rain as if trying
to rinse off dust from every surface.
A few more blasts of wind, a bit more rain.
Earth shudders, stills, gathers
fallen rain to become greener yet.
Last Seen Wearing
a full coat of pink blossoms
wrapped around every limb.
Below that only rough bark
exposed to spring gusts.
If you search for her now,
be sure the artist offers you
an updated sketch, an image
of bare limbs that chill you
just to look at them.
If you want
to see her as she was last seen,
wait until next spring when
you will once again find her wearing
a full coat of pink blossoms.
Fran Abrams turned to writing poetry after retiring, having spent 40 years writing legislation, regulations, memos and reports in government and nonprofit organizations. Her poems have been published online and in print in Cathexis-Northwest Press, The American Journal of Poetry, MacQueen’s Quinterly Literary Magazine, The Raven’s Perch, Gargoyle 74, and others. In 2019, she was a juried poet at Houston (TX) Poetry Fest and a featured reader at DiVerse Gaithersburg (MD) Poetry Reading. Her poems appear in eleven anthologies, including the 2021 collection titled This is What America Looks Like from Washington Writers Publishing House (WWPH). In December 2021, she won the WWPH Winter Poetry Prize for her poem titled “Waiting for Snow.” Her chapbook, titled The Poet Who Loves Pythagoras, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. Please visit franabramspoetry.com.
Editor’s Note: These poems appeared in the show “Photopoetry,” alongside photographs by Gordana Gerskovic, at the Foundry Gallery, April 2022.
Image by W.carter, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons