The Chickasaw Trees — Blackbird Archive

← v13n1, Spring 2014

the chickasaw

trees are full

of bees the

pretty white

panicles

everywhere

light

turn them

frantic

as they haul

their pollen

baskets

from star

to star

to fragrant

star this

industry

thrumming

in the hearts

of flatland

plums hums

in the lucky

air far

from where

war

goes on

and on and

here on

the sun-lit

prairie light

winds shift

and dusky

nouns are sung

from the trees

where an owl

frowns

in sleep

and later

comes

in the guise

of ghost

to say

he knows

that all

the people

in a world

without bees

are lost

nature ecology war place

Sidney Wade

Sidney Wade is the author of seven collections of poetry, including Bird Book (Atelier26 Books, 2017). Her poetry and translations have appeared in Grand Street , The New Yorker , The Paris Review , and Poetry , among others. Her translation with Efe Murad of Silent Stones: Selected Poems of Melih Cevdet Anday (Talisman House, 2017) won the Meral Divitçi Prize. Wade taught poetry and translation for twenty-three years as part of the University of Florida’s MFA program. She has also served as president of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs and as secretary/treasurer of The American Literary Translators Association. Photo by Marion Ettlinger