The Orchard
In the dream it comes in the shape
of a giant bird—large as a heron
but with rust-red feathers—
swooping over the winter orchard
to within a stride of where we walk
among the hunchbacked branches.
Mortality coiled, ready to spring.
In the dream my teacher warns against
using the phrase “in the dream” in a poem.
But how else can I explain: In the dream,
the rust-feathered heron shakes her wings
and struts the orchard like a real bird.
And we watch, like figures from a dream.
of a giant bird—large as a heron
but with rust-red feathers—
swooping over the winter orchard
to within a stride of where we walk
among the hunchbacked branches.
Mortality coiled, ready to spring.
In the dream my teacher warns against
using the phrase “in the dream” in a poem.
But how else can I explain: In the dream,
the rust-feathered heron shakes her wings
and struts the orchard like a real bird.
And we watch, like figures from a dream.
September 2024
Hannah Silverstein is a graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. A 2021 Best of the Net finalist, her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Passengers Journal, Passages North, Barnstorm Journal, Dialogist, Orange Blossom Review, West Trestle Review, Cider Press Review, LEON Literary Review, Whale Road Review, and others. She lives in Vermont.
Art: Kelly Cressio-Moeller, Childhood Faultlines. Mixed media: acrylic, ink, paper, mica flakes on basswood panel, 2023.