come hide near me
I’ll count however long I need to count the insects in the web—
I like
the still living ones—that beat of wing I hear
or
the still turned-on
ignition of the firefly—I see one’s underbelly
blink
on and off—come hide near me, somewhere in this wild grove, in its umbra green
where
my mind turns down the bed
Christine Garren is the author of the poetry collections Afterworld and Among the Monarchs. Her latest collection is The Piercing, published in 2006 in the Southern Messenger Poets series from Louisiana State University Press. A Los Angeles Times Book Award finalist and NEA Fellowship recipient, she was born in Philadelphia and has lived in Greensboro, North Carolina, since 1979.