One moment it is summer, glasses

Abstract

[One moment it is summer, glasses] Corrie Williamson (bio) One moment it is summer, glassesof white wine in our hands as we hoveraround Beverly's evening primrose bushawaiting the promised 9:10 p. m. show.Soon enough, I'll be barefootin the cold grass picking applesand listening for elk hollering like ghostsin their fierce and protective courting,the season a lightless tunnel, the pathin darkness. But at this moment therethey are, petals shivering loose fromfurled cones, flitting out their butterywings into fragrant four-fingered palms.Oh, I think, as we all say oh, oh,there it is: the way to flare from shelter,willing burst and die. We standquiet now as the sphinx moths arrive. [End Page 147] Corrie Williamson corrie williamson is the author of The River Where You Forgot My Name, finalist for the 2019 Montana Book Award, and Sweet Husk. She was the 2020 recipient of the PEN Northwest/Boyden Wilderness Writing Residency, and lived for seven and a half months in a remote, off-grid cabin in Oregon. Recent poems appear in the Southern Review and Boulevard. She lives in Montana. * Copyright © 2020 University of North Carolina Wilmington