Ahead of the Storm
By Laura Ann Reed
after Osip Mandelstam
In the aluminum light pooling
on the juniper
the tendrils appear to compress
and contract, the blue-green needles to flatten
as though made by dread alone
into a beaten weight.
At the same time, no one can believe
the expansive passion of the roots.
It takes a tractor to extract them.
We think it’s theirs: such fear,
such love.
But in the temple of our dreams
there it is in ourselves.
There it is.
Laura Ann Reed is the author of the chapbook Homage to Kafka (Poetry Box, 2025). Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and has appeared in ten anthologies, including Poetry of Presence (Grayson Books, 2023) and The Wonder of Small Things (Storey Publishing, 2023). Visit her website.
Photo credit: Konrad Glogowski via a Creative Commons License.
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