The Witch's Manuscript
It starts with trees and ends with trees.
Binding of broken bark and branch,
fibers of fallen forests,
She inks in green, photosynthesis
floral cascading herbal remnants.
Her daughter will know how to soothe the sick,
bulbs of daffodil, roots of milkwort—
Under starshine and sunbeams, she grows
a garden of words.
Learn the speckled paths, journey to astral mother—
They’ll meet once again,
circling the crocodiles’ lullaby,
diving down the vascular stems,
sinking again to soil—
It starts with trees and ends with trees.
Binding of broken bark and branch,
fibers of fallen forests,
She inks in green, photosynthesis
floral cascading herbal remnants.
Her daughter will know how to soothe the sick,
bulbs of daffodil, roots of milkwort—
Under starshine and sunbeams, she grows
a garden of words.
Learn the speckled paths, journey to astral mother—
They’ll meet once again,
circling the crocodiles’ lullaby,
diving down the vascular stems,
sinking again to soil—
It starts with trees and ends with trees.
September / October, 2022
April Lim is a Chinese Cambodian American writer from Houston, TX. She has received fellowships and scholarships from Tin House, Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, The Watering Hole, Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, and elsewhere. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Palette Poetry, Sweet: A Literary Confection, Bayou Magazine, and elsewhere. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Poetry at Oklahoma State University where she is an Editorial Assistant for the Cimarron Review.
Art: Madge Evers. She Sells Sea Shells. Mushroom spores on paper.