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      August 23, 2020Another YearLaurie Macfee

      Keep hold of the hummingbirds that flit
      even as they fly away.
      Life renews itself in their thrum.
      Like bees wandering heliotrope for pollen
      you find your way back to
       
      holes that feed you.
      Always this muscle that hurts and grinds, another
      year gone. Another
      day waking to fog or sun.
      Even as they fly away,
      never forget how hard wings work
       
      holding a body aloft.
      Open this season like the ripe
      plum you once thought was a cherry.
      Even as you wanted the cherry.

      from Poets Respond

      Laurie Macfee

      “The event this poem responds to is my neighbor’s birthday. She has had chronic pain for ten years and, during the pandemic, flew to the Midwest for a brain operation. There is no news story other than she is alive and didn’t catch Covid-19 on the planes or the many trips in and out of the hospital. It’s filled with images from our shared landscape. I’ve come to know her well because of Covid isolation, and talk with her multiple times a day over the fence. Amidst all the many nightmares playing out, it felt necessary to wish her hope. And grant it to myself for that moment. It is a simple acrostic, which was my only way into words that day. I’ll take whatever comes right now.”

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