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Hardscrabble
by
Judy Shimek Drechsler


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Sarcastic lacy branches drenched in heat.                                                                       
produce inferior vegetation no matter how
hard the tree tries.
Impoverished brown leaves desiccated and
wrinkled before their time survive by
curling into a crevice and waiting for the
rains to come down.
Cotyledons dying before their stored
nutrition can nurture true leaves.
There is a beauty in this misery.
Dry brown twigs dance in silvery dust
blown below wind-shredded clouds.
Fragile beauty survives in simplicity and
lack of ornamentation.
Life trickles up stems and trunks
exhausted but determined.


© by Judy Drechsler.
Used with the author's permission.

 


 


Judy Shimek Drechsler spent most of her teaching career in Anchorage, Alaska, where she taught literacy courses for the University of Alaska -Anchorage and was a full time primary teacher in the Anchorage School District. She retired to Port Townsend, Washington in 2000. Since then, Judy has waded deeply into poetry, has had work published in a variety of venues, and has published one book.

 

 

 


Post New Comment:
barbsteff:
Hadn't thought of cotelydons since I was in college. Wonderfully wrought descriptions, hope-filled in an oddball sort of way.
Posted 09/12/2019 10:45 AM
KevinArnold:
Marvelously-crafted cacophony of sounds.
Posted 09/12/2019 04:33 AM


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