by C.W. Bryan
The bees have begun tuning their violins,
raking their wings along the sleep-filled strings
as I sit in the parking lot peeling stickers off of half-priced
books.
The roses are unfurling their red carpets,
the ants are single-filing their way across the dirt—
as if millenia of evolution has instilled in them a sense of
propriety.
Soon the bees will find their starting notes,
soon the birds will lift their voices, soon the ants
will fill the soil like an auditorium, and I will lift my head from my
book
Just in time to see the sun framing your body,
a pre-bloom dandelion perfecting its pirouette between
your thumb and second finger, a smile lifting your face like a
curtain.
C.W. Bryan is the author of two collections of poetry. His debut chapbook Celine: An Elegy was published with Bottlecap Press in 2023. His first full-length collection, No Bird Lives in my Heart is forthcoming with In Case of Emergency Press in 2024. He lives in Atlanta, GA where he writes poetry, nonfiction and short fiction. He is currently writing with Sam Kilkenny at poetryispretentious.com. His work can be found in Beaver Magazine, Door is a Jar Magazine, Eunoia Review, Scavengers and elsewhere.
