Judy Kronenfeld

IN THE FOREST


Still lush enough, here, 
unseared by fire, 
to shut out the world below.	
No sound in the piney
sweet-sharp air, but my footfalls
on the trail, the skitter
of a pebble, a hidden bird’s
brief trill. Dusty sunbeams
sift in through the trees.
My freed thoughts 
glide silently away, 
new-winged. I think 		
I hear the faintest tick: 
an oak leaf dropping		 
onto leaves. And hold
on to it—against the roar
of the coming years.

       

Judy Kronenfeld is the author of five books of poetry including Groaning and Singing (FutureCycle, 2022), Bird Flying through the Banquet (FutureCycle, 2017), and Shimmer (WordTech, 2012). Her poems have appeared in many anthologies and in such journals as New Ohio Review, One, Slant, Rattle, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and Verdad.

   

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