Like the goldfinch resting on the thistle
feeder, your mother’s ghost perches
on the casement, gleans seeds,
drops the hulls in long grass—
still believes she’s fallen short,
stinted the hungry nest. Offer
devotion, her face lifting like April
mist. Bid her trace the slow
curve of your life, evening sky unwinding,
nights kept by the ache of her light.
–
Annette Sisson’s poems appear in Valparaiso Poetry Review, Birmingham Poetry Review, Rust & Moth, and many other journals. Her second book, Winter Sharp with Apples, was published by Terrapin Books in October 2024. Her first book, Small Fish in High Branches, was published in May 2022 by Glass Lyre Press.