Clipping a small twig from your sweet Betsy bush the final time I stood in our yard, familiar as the lines traveling my own palm, I imagine I am taking you with me hours away from this home officially now owned by others. All winter I baptize you with water, brown stick, looking quite dead. In spring I plant you, whisper I’ve done all I can. By summer you take off, lifting leaf hands to the heavens, passing the roofline with a laugh.
Peggy Hammond’s poetry is featured or forthcoming in The Lyricist, Oberon Poetry, High Shelf Press, San Antonio Review, Inklette, West Trade Review, Rogue Agent, Ginosko Literary Journal, and Trouvaille Review. Her full-length play A Little Bit of Destiny was produced by OdysseyStage Theatre in Durham, North Carolina.
