The poem “I imagine a grove of white birch trees” accompanied by Sara Maino’s painting “Ritorno a Velo” is published in #Maintenant15 by Three Rooms Press Publishers.
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I imagine a grove of white birch trees:
A papyrus forest,
The cold earth-waking from wintertime,
War-rhythm,
From a poverty
Of imagination,
As the nights grow shorter
And the sun touches the ground
Warmer and stronger.
I imagine the snow sinking down,
Getting purple and heavy,
Then, reincarnating into blue water.
And as the snow recedes
Through the birch fingers,
I’m ready:
Dreaming away our spring
At a riverside birchbark teepee,
We – a couple of “wild Indians” –
Cruising night rivers in a paper canoe,
Stumbling over bitcoins,
When the white of the birch tree
Is seen by moonlight;
It looks silvery and gleaming
As beguiling as Venus.
The chartreuse leaves
Unfurl once more
To sway and whisper
The timeless analogue songs of Siberia.
Birch trees are the first ones
To populate under the Earth’s dome
After the winter, fires, ice ages,
Or even manmade wars.
I imagine a grove filled with hundreds of tiny seeds,
Scattered
Miles away
From the Earth,
You and me,
To break the dormancy of our candles,
Waiting to be lit.
“Ritorno a Velo”, Sara Maino, 2020
