moss clings to branches like whispers feather hope
thirty, forty feet up?
far enough to cramp the neck
yellow-green & tinged with blue
airy & light in the warming breeze
teasing about the season
just now gone
delicious to the eye
but to the skin gives a scratch
nothing soft or silly about it
as its frail wispiness might suggest
sturdy, rugged stuff
evolved, went one way,
then another, which improved its chances
like a woman
nice to be reminded things
aren’t always as they seem, even if
truth at first disappoints
Photo by Daniel Ruyter on Unsplash
Anne Leigh Parrish
Award-winning writer Anne Leigh Parrish’s next novel, an open door, will be published in October 2022 by Unsolicited Press. Recent titles from Unsolicited Press are the moon won’t be dared, a poetry collection, October 2021, and a winter night, a novel, released in March 2021. She is the author of seven other books. She has recently ventured into the art of photography and lives in the South Sound Region of Washington State. Find her online at her website, Twitter, Facebook, Medium, Instagram, Linked In, and Goodreads.
