by Sarah Kilch Gaffney

It's #tbt! Enjoy this great one from SWWIM Every Day's archives!

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A book from your college days
tucked next to my Strunk & White,
your name scrawled
on a page in your mix
of capitals and lowercase.

Such precision of bloom dates,
soil pH, and mineral composition,
almost invasive in the details
of the little lives of these plants.

You always said you wanted
to take me to the Adirondacks.
A trip .02 degrees north never made.

It is a prayer of sorts
to touch these pages
of bloodroot and bittersweet,
trillium and nightshade,
paper birch and hornbeam.
I pause on Monotropa uniflora:
Indian pipe, otherwise, ghost
pipe, corpse plant, one
they say can grow
even absent all light.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sarah Kilch Gaffney is a writer, brain injury advocate, and homemade caramel aficionado living in Maine. You can find her work at www.sarahkilchgaffney.com.

by Sarah Kilch Gaffney

A book from your college days

tucked next to my Strunk & White,

your name scrawled

on a page in your mix

of capitals and lowercase.

Such precision of bloom dates,

soil pH, and mineral composition,

almost invasive in the details

of the little lives of these plants.

You always said you wanted

to take me to the Adirondacks.

A trip .02 degrees north never made.

It is a prayer of sorts

to touch these pages

of bloodroot and bittersweet,

trillium and nightshade,

paper birch and hornbeam.

I pause on Monotropa uniflora:

Indian pipe, otherwise, ghost

pipe, corpse plant, one

they say can grow

even absent all light.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Sarah Kilch Gaffney is a writer, brain injury advocate, and homemade caramel aficionado. She lives in Maine and you can find her work at www.sarahkilchgaffney.com.