Elizabeth Poreba
Albany, November
This year, the magnolia that usually
turns brassy then heaves its leaves
like a hoard of coins over the lawn
held on green through November,
a dulled green, gloss lost, like an old idea
it couldn’t figure out how to reject.
When a hard frost seared all that was left
to a drab brown close to black,
the tree still gripped its leaves and shot
a few deformed catkins above its crown
like furred antennae tuned to hear
news of strange changes in the year.
Then early snow weighted the leaves
and broke some boughs. Could be
the roots stored wealth enough to green
again next year, or could be the tree
has spent its last on this event and must,
like so much else, begin to disappear.
Elizabeth Poreba is the author of Self Help (Resource Publications, 2017), Vexed (Resource Publications, 2015), and The Family Calling (Finishing Line Press, 2011). Her poems have appeared in Ducts, Feminist Studies in Religion, and Commonweal, among others. She taught English in New York City high schools for 35 years and now volunteers for environmental groups.
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