A journal of art + literature engaging with nature, culture, the environment & ecology

Three poems by Janice L. Freytag

Janice L. Freytag, Souderton, Pennsylvania, USA

 

Winter Reveals

 

Winter reveals 

its economy of survival,

the carnivorous marketplace

of bloody negotiations.

 

An owl swallows

small rodents whole,

dark within her stomach

pearling bones into balls.

 

I tease apart

regurgitated skin and fur 

to name her meals. How familiar

this commerce in death, 

and the wild ululation of owls.

 

The Memory of Corn

A hawk hovers over the field,

tethered like a kite

to the memory of corn.

Everyone is tired, 

though the year has just begun.

 

We feel the weight of missing things.

We forget the shape their names

made in our mouths when we told

our harvest stories, before 

the horizon moved away.

Today I Saw a Hawk

Today I saw a hawk

carry a rabbit into the trees.

Never mind that the rabbit’s bones

were ten times denser than the hawk’s.

From afar, it looked effortless,

like the labors of all faithful parents.

Is the hawk glad I saw this?

Does it think, Maybe today

someone will understand death?

 

Janice L. Freytag currently resides in Souderton, PA. She began writing poetry after working in post-war Bosnia. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Amethyst Review, Dappled Things, One Art, Radix, Relief, Saint Katherine Review, Talking River, Thimble, Windhover and others. In addition to poetry, she has written four children’s musicals. She is an enthusiastic, though not always successful, gardener.

THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A NATURAL DISASTER

Tiger