SPIRITS IN THE BACKYARD

KEITH TAYLOR

“My tree stays tree.”
-Sylvia Plath

When the oaks came down
in our mini tornado
and after the chopping
and hauling away were over,

the long-lived dryads
must have had no place
to roost, not that they needed
a place after a couple
of centuries nested in one tree.

For a while they were comfortable
enough shimmering through gardens
or forests, barely perceptible
in the far corner of my eye.

This piece reflects the author’s backyard in Ann Arbor, MI.

Keith Taylor’s next book — All the Time You Want: Selected Poems, 1977 – 2017 — will be published in January, 2024 by Dzanc Books. He lives in Ann Arbor.

Find this piece on page 37 of our inaugural print issue.