birch girls

By Jennifer Crow

pale faces

crowd around me, a circle

called up from the roots

of time—pinned to the moss

I blink at a blaze

of morning light

on leaves

secrets whisper

and birch girls laugh

shaking slender limbs

in the teeth of the wind—

shifting green shows

every summer of the world

and if you lie beside me, birch girl,

we will sleep until sunset

and learn how to bend trees

into bows

and fling ourselves to the stars

*

Jennifer Crow’s poetry has appeared in a number of print electronic venues over the years, most recently in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly and Star*Line. You can find her on Twitter @writerjencrow, or on Patreon creating new poems and essays for her patrons.