Summer J. Hart
Little Witch Tunnel
Forget that nonsense about rhododendrons.
Flowers are not for superstition.
Not for guarding, Winnie says,
The entrance to the world of the dead.
We walk along a root-browned river. Alder cone. Leaf rot.
She instructs me to unscrew the lid from a canning jar.
What is the meaning then.
Of ferns that blanch before browning out.
Crowsfoot. Star moss.
Winnie points to a cluster of ghost pipes. Pale & bell-faced.
She labels the jar with a Sharpie.
To be a flower is not your responsibility.
Summer J. Hart is an interdisciplinary artist and writer from Maine living in the Hudson Valley, New York. Summer is the author of Boomhouse (2023, The 3rd Thing Press), winner of the 2024 Nassar Poetry Prize. Her creative work has been supported by NYSCA/NYFA and MacDowell fellowships. Her writing can be found in Best Small Fictions 2023, Bedfellows, Heavy Feather Review, Jet Fuel Review, The Massachusetts Review, Northern New England Review, Waxwing, and elsewhere. Her mixed-media installations have been featured in shows and galleries across the country. Summer is an enrolled member of the Listuguj Mi’gmaq First Nation.