after the death of a neighbor kid, I think of Charlotte's Web
in morning sun
a spider meditates
along its lattice
next to my bench
no words
or wisdom threaded
I look again
like a child
at wilted sunflowers
in the garden bed
no such thing as dead – they’re dreaming
of their favorite bees
& the oaks – no dying leaves
they are autumn's brass notes
ringing out in final symphony
but there’s no sign
of what it means to be
without breath
where are the ribbons?
the silky answers shining
light from the corner?
before us
all this
life
all this
letting go
still
we don't know
Before the revolution
There is nothing new except what has been
forgotten. -Marie Antoinette
She wanted to be a flower
farmer that first year kneeling
under the birch trees
on Evergreen Drive.
300 bulbs –
each a dirty prayer
a messy birth, a hope
that beauty can atone
for ripping into earth.
Loud rows, tulips
angry red.
Morning and night
it rained
but it was never enough.
If they are hungry
she thought
let them eat the sun.
The time I ate a flower
I pulled it from a yellow
birthday cake
pansy sugared purple
the way I try to be
it's in the voice
extra honey in
please but
I'd whittle my tongue
before I'd call a stranger sweetie
I can't
grow
sage in the front yard
songbirds keep eating seeds
chickens prefer meat
once the hens picked apart a skink
in front of my son
he was three
a lover of dinosaurs anything green
after
his favorite color was hemoglobin
he wanted horror films
instead of fossils
either way, bones are displayed
seasons change
now he likes blue
now woolly bear caterpillars
rush into trees
cold weather mystics
they claim
winter will be long
the road's their attempt at escape
I veer around them
to spare at least one thing
winter plea-se
don't bite
the flower was tissue
in my teeth
the flavor was the end
of spring
A. Rabaduex is a veteran, having translated Russian and worked as a paralegal for the Air Force for 7 (mostly fun) years. She now works as an adjunct professor teaching ethnographic writing and basic writing. Her poems are inspired by pantheism and etymology. Her most recent writing successes include winning contests in Causeway Lit, American Writers Review, and Sand Hills Lit, as well as being nominated for the first time for a Pushcart Prize by Gyroscope Review.
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