by KJ Hannah Greenberg
Leaf Litter
i
Prairie crabapple reaches. Dormant limbs stretch
across a melting backyard rink. Shaky ankles trace tight circles
in stiff white skates, laces drooping in long double knots.
Mom tip-taps a steamy pane, pointer finger, chipped polish
draws a wide, tired smile, folds into a nest of flowered flannels
dog-eared cookbooks with sticky-note promises of someday meals.
Pink buds relax into white blossoms, and apple scab spreads
along outstretched arms. Trunk felled, the pies wait
stacked, shrink-wrapped in the freezer still.
Woody roots send new growth skyward.
ii
Up-north jack pine oozes. Slow flow of pitch pools
and spills into waxy drippings. Sisters high-knees skip
along the sponge of dropped needles and stair-step moss.
Dad extends a tanned stop-signal, palm open. Picks at resin,
rolls three teardrop beads pressed into the gap
of tomboy buck teeth, melting gummy sap reminders
of all summers that brought us trailblazing
into this one. Taiga tree stands tall.
iii
Italian plum bounces. Branches match rhythms
of my sing-song swinging girl. I catch and push
until stripey legs pump on their own, loosen yellow leaves,
release sticky pop-tunes and preschool troubles.
Overripe fruit and bubblegum boots tumble
onto packed dirt below. Sweet clingstone swings.
iv
Arbutus sloughs off torn sheets of ochre skin. I snatch up
papery curls from leaf litter and scribble Sharpie thank-yous
and so many questions. Twisted spine leans into westerlies,
listens, and — spared the gouged, permanent heart
of a jackknife — lets more cinnamon bark fly. Solid
broadleaf, easy evergreen, may I sit awhile and rest?
Andrea Scott is a Canadian writer and educator. Her poems are published or forthcoming in The Humber Literary Review, The Antigonish Review and Channel Magazine. She was shortlisted for the 2022 Bridport Poetry Prize and the 2020 CBC Poetry Prize, and longlisted for the Federation of BC Writers 2022 Literary Contest, The Malahat Review’s 2020 Far Horizons Award for Poetry, and Prism International’s 2020 Pacific Spirit Poetry Prize. She lives with her family in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, the traditional territory of the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations. Instagram: @andreascottwords.
KJ Hannah Greenberg tilts at social ills and encourages personal evolutions via poetry, prose, and visual art. Her images have appeared as interior art in many places, including Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, Kissing Dynamite, Les Femmes Folles, Mused, Piker Press, The Academy of the Heart and Mind, The Front Porch Review, and Yellow Mama and as cover art in many places, including Angime, Black Petals, Door is A Jar Literary Magazine [sic], Impspired [sic], Pithead Chapel, Red Flag Poetry, Right Hand Pointing, Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine, The Broken City, Torah Tidbits and Yellow Mama. Additionally, some of her digital paintings are featured alongside of her poetry in One-Handed Pianist (Hekate Publishing, 2021).