Hairy Bittercress
by Anna Laura Reeve
In February, when I look at my life
and want to sleep forever, when most
living things are in abeyance, hairy
bittercress plaits its ferny manes. It
raises a stalk of white flowers tiny and
perfect as clockworks. When it hands
its torches to the winter sun, they
shatter with a hiss.
Anna Laura Reeve is a poet living and gardening near the Tennessee Overhill region, traditional land of the Eastern Cherokee. Previous work of hers has appeared or is forthcoming in Beloit Poetry Journal, ROOM Magazine, Rust + Moth, Terrain.org, and others. She is the winner of the 2022 Adrienne Rich Award for Poetry, and a finalist for the Ron Rash Award and the Heartwood Poetry Prize. Her debut poetry collection, Reaching the Shore of the Sea of Fertility, is forthcoming from Belle Point Press.
