Watched by crows and friend to salamanders, Lisa Creech Bledsoe is a hiker, beekeeper, and writer living in the mountains of Western North Carolina. She is the author of two full-length books of poetry, Appalachian Ground (2019), and Wolf Laundry (2020). She has new poems out or forthcoming in American Writers Review, The Main Street Rag, The Public Poetry 2020 Anthology, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, and River Heron Review, among others.
Not Yet
the waning summer gleams with fat
apricots and onions
walnuts waiting to blacken
the crows accept where I walk —
their nestlings
never learned fear of me
the south wind and
sharpening stars tied
to the branches of bedtime
remind me
to watch
for the last hummingbird to pack
it’s not yet time
not yet
the jewelweed hasn’t
tilted out
her fat bumbles
I never found the owl
and
don’t want to close down
the hives
just yet
I’m not ready
not ready
one more story
one more glass of wine
on the porch
and possibly
a quilt
Lisa Creech Bledsoe