Counting the Weeper's Rings

Swaying in tree

pose     invoking ability

to quell shaking limbs,

 

I question years of narrow

rings     future possibilities

of wide ones in-between.

 

I breathe-in     realign

bend to chronic thirst

skip warrior III, exhaling

 

stronger children

in eucalyptus & western

red cedar     hiding

 

them in willow hair

before we drop

to corpse pose.

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Julie “Jules” Jacob is a contemporary poet who often writes about dichotomous conditions and relationships among humans and the natural world. Her poems are recently featured or forthcoming in Plume Poetry, The Tishman Review, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Rust + Moth, Yes Poetry and elsewhere. She’s the author of The Glass Sponge, a semi-finalist in the New Women’s Voices Series (Finishing Line Press) and a resident of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Poetry Workshop. Visit julesjacob.com.