“Is Now the Time To Listen for Birds?” by Jacqueline Simon

—In this city there were time-pockets/Wormholes
	of dark-stars, of Blue Witch Nightshade
	of Coyote Brush, Buckwheat, Osprey
	Geese flying overhead like a broom
sweeping heartbeats—

Can you sense what you don’t 
remember—
	the dizzying strobe of sunlight on water?
the copper-penny smell of birth?

I remember the taste of Sumac &
	laughter caught by coughs
I remember when I couldn’t 
read aloud without shaking

I won’t waste my time
	writing young
I feel aged in vinegar
I need lessons
 in what must die

But not 
the strangeness of hope—
How fog is wonder
How the years 
	pass in green

—In this city there are time-pockets/Wormholes
	of dark-stars, of Blue Witch Nightshade
	of Coyote Brush, Buckwheat, Osprey
	Geese flying overhead like a broom
sweeping heartbeats—

Jacqueline Simon’s writing has appeared in The Cortland Review, Okay Donkey, BOAAT, Pennsylvania English, and the anthology Processing Crisis (Risk Press). She was nominated for Best of the Net by Okay Donkey in 2020. Jacqueline received her M.F.A. in poetry from Saint Mary’s College of California. She is a volunteer and board member of an environmental education nonprofit, where she works with and trains rescued donkeys.

Image: “Storm King” by Daniel Nester

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