how the leaves keep the memory of ice. Photo credit: C. Finch
by A.H. Kim
I saw the branches on the curb
Victims of the recent ice storm
Twisted piles of splintery wood
Waiting to be turned into chips
But hidden within the debris
I spied some buds, small and velvet
Trusting in the promise of spring
I gathered up the tender twigs
Tearing them from their mother stock
Until my arms were overfull
I placed the branches in a vase
Full of water, clean as rainfall
Set them in a sunny window
A hopeful prayer murmured soft
Each day I check my pilfered prize
For magnolia blooms, pale and pink
To emerge from the downy gray
What is it that I am seeking?
To trick the dying to choose life?
As if that choice were mine to give
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A.H. Kim is an Ann Arbor-based writer and author of the novels A Good Family (2020) and Relative Strangers (forthcoming April 2024). This poem was inspired by the ice storm of March 2023 and the death of Ann’s mother in 2022.
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This is an original poem, brought to you by Poet Tree Town, an Ann Arbor-based poetry-in-public initiative and celebration of local Washtenaw poets. Find out more about Poet Tree Town on Instagram and Facebook, or say hello at poettreetowna2@gmail.com.
