- Recovery
For years the trees had no one to look over them.
Rains followed by drought followed by floods and other hardships
kept them alone in the cycle of winter, spring, summer, fall.
Sometimes they shivered while snow balanced on branches.
Cars drifted past, wide brims of light at night, not even a glance, and the ground
was absorbed with its own issues of sun or shade, rain or dew.
Finally from a nearby window came the faces of two girls and their voices calling to the birds
who sang in the trees, the deer chewing leaves, the rabbits and squirrels, Quiet, be quiet,
our mother’s sick and she’s sleeping. Day after day their mother turned
toward the window—awakening. [End Page 548]
katie bowler young is the author of State Street. Currently writing a biography of sculptor Enrique Alférez for the Historic New Orleans Collection, she is the director of global relations at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and coadvisor for Carolina Passport, a student publication.