Monday, April 22, 2024

A WOMAN SEES A REDBUD TREE ON EARTH DAY

by Ilene Millman




Bloom summoned by spring rains 
has summoned her— 
she stands on her patio square 
  
stretching up in her sleepy gray sweats, 
morning sun slowly climbing the arc of sky. 
From where she stands, all rosy 
  
blossoms up and down the redbud 
like pink freckles 
on tanned arms 
  
the woman watches 
the sun curve 
up around the tree’s branches  
  
like a playful kitten, 
and at the touchy tips 
she sees tiny heart-shaped leaves 
  
almost translucent 
as the eyelids of newborns. 
A cardinal hops from pinked arm to arm 
  
to the top of the tree 
his raucous ring of birdie, birdie, birdie 
ending in a slow trill. 
  
It was the whistle of this songbird 
rising on the gaunt wind that caught her— 
  
Aren’t we all susceptible? 
Her mind draws the details— 
  
disappearing species 
melting icecaps, rising seas 
  
and the redbud 
offering its hearts 
  
and the redbud offering 
its hearts.


Ilene Millman is a retired speech/language therapist who spent more than thirty-five years teaching children who learn differently. She published two language therapy games. Millman’s poetry received a Pushcart nomination in 2022 and is featured in print and Net journals including , The New Verse News, Potomac Review, Healing Muse, Nelle, The Journal of New Jersey Poets and othersHer first poetry collection, Adjust Speed to Weather, was published in 2018; her newest collection, A Jar of Moths, was published by Ragged Sky Press in March, 2024.