Gretchen Tessmer
thistles & weeds
honeybees buzz
and hum through
lavender fields, making
mischief from nothing
while I dig deep
for roots and other
gnarled, twisted things
maid of spades
and three-forked trowels
seeking out old spells
that I know haunt
the bottom of these
mucked and muddied
weed beds, where
all my forefathers
and mothers too
buried pale moon-
and-thistle tricks
after fleeing the old country
in splinter-wood ships
running from clutter
and cholera
and red rivers of blood
spilling in their garden pits
_______________
Gretchen Tessmer is a writer/attorney based in the U.S./Canadian borderlands of Northern New York. Her work has most recently appeared in Andromeda Spaceways Magazine, Tiny Owl Workshop’s Lane of Unusual Traders and Spirit’s Tincture.
Editor’s Note: Image is the superposition of a garden of lavender & jasmine (Pinterest), chemical glassware (pftglasses.com), and a burning pentagram (clipshine.com).
