Rebecca Cross, Equisetum Catiblecum, Cathie’s Horsetail, 2019 (Artist Website)
Mixed Media
POET’S NOTE:
“Dendrochronology” is a gigan, a 16-line form created by American poet Ruth Ellen Kocher. This poem also follows amphibrachic meter.
the birthday boy’s missing
his day of arrival
in May when the fruit trees
surrender their blossoms
birth leaves by the million
no annual growth ring
no notch in the doorframe
when lilacs throw scent clouds
on daffodil big bands
unseemly profusions
the birthday boy’s missing
his annual growth ring
each year since his seventh
flat dogwood still bloom
fat peonies ready
imagine him twenty