Kinnikinnick The low shrub you know as bearberry also bears the castanet name kinnikinnick scientific moniker of Arctostaphylos uva-ursi Beloved by bears and hummingbirds it thrives in bright sun and poor soil makes the best of things Do not be confused by the fact it has different names. Don’t you? Don’t you have multiple ways of being in the world depending on the day the year who you’re with and where? In the mishmash of thoughts experiences hopes regrets – all the stuff of “being human” we live not one life but many have multiple transformations like instars of a Cecropia changing shape colors crawling spinning finally flying We morph and what the world sees looks different But how altered is what lies within? Some will say I’ve always been this way but others of us know we’ve been reworked fibers unwound restrung to play a different tune rough edges painfully ground down glowing now with rich patina Our facets cracks and divots are unique have their own inimitable splendor kinnikinnick’s small pink vase-shaped summer flowers autumn’s scarlet berries
Sylvia Byrne Pollack’s poems appear in Floating Bridge Review, Crab Creek Review, The Stillwater Review and many others. She is a two-time Pushcart nominee, 2013 Mason’s Road Literary Awardee, 2019 Jack Straw Writer, 2021 Mineral School Resident. Her debut collection is Risking It (Red Mountain Press 2021.) www.sylviabyrnepollack.com
Amethyst Review 