"Geese" by Josephine Florens
Angie Macri | The Thorns on the Hill Gave the Hill Its Name
You worked to uncurl the ferns on the north-facing slope.
They wouldn’t, couldn’t take form
before they were ready, as I told you was the case,
but you had to find out your way.
Each fern unwound as if a leaf could bloom.
Like everywhere else, our forest
had been clearcut, then replanted by hungry men
by the hundreds, other men with money
eager to reclaim the soil that was running. The fever
of wanting ferns had passed
the century before,
pteridomania. Yes, I found that word
even here: ferns embroidered in borders,
painted on china, hunted
and glued down on paper, bodies
easy to use. But a fern could seem like feathers, if given half
a chance, so I named you fern. The hill
became a thorn, worth next
to nothing, but born here, you were never cut,
not even once in all your running.
They wouldn’t, couldn’t take form
before they were ready, as I told you was the case,
but you had to find out your way.
Each fern unwound as if a leaf could bloom.
Like everywhere else, our forest
had been clearcut, then replanted by hungry men
by the hundreds, other men with money
eager to reclaim the soil that was running. The fever
of wanting ferns had passed
the century before,
pteridomania. Yes, I found that word
even here: ferns embroidered in borders,
painted on china, hunted
and glued down on paper, bodies
easy to use. But a fern could seem like feathers, if given half
a chance, so I named you fern. The hill
became a thorn, worth next
to nothing, but born here, you were never cut,
not even once in all your running.
Angie Macri is the author of Sunset Cue (Bordighera), winner of the Lauria/Frasca Poetry Prize, and Underwater Panther (Southeast Missouri State University), winner of the Cowles Poetry Book Prize. Recent poems appear in Bennington Review, DIAGRAM, and Pleiades. An Arkansas Arts Council fellow, she lives in Hot Springs.
Josephine Florens is a Ukrainian artist based in Germany. Her paintings explore identity, memory, and resilience through expressive color and symbolic form. Exhibited internationally, her works have appeared in journals and collections across Europe and North America.
