Caught Along the Veins of a Sugar Maple by Courtney Elmlinger

​She sat along the horizontal planks
staring up deep into the golden fringes
waiting,
expecting the wind to answer.

Each day mimicked the next
A routine walk,
Same familiar yard growing
a tree she claimed her own.

Hours passed in the fibers
of her speaking
loudly
to the core of branches

overseeing her presence.

She can’t remember the girl
who grew up there
but clings to the helicopters
that drift each Fall,
hoping they’ll remember her.