Brought Back

The tops of trees
green pine, white birch, 
oak waiting to bud
and an ajax sky of filtered light
draw my eyes up.

Inspiration is there
but my feet need attention
and the dirt path
brings me back to hard realities;
dead pine needles, bits of corn stalk,
Satterwhite stone,
my own pain
and a viral world
full of war and sorrow
discord and drama.

I walk on
view the unplowed fields
as birds sing to themselves
put aside their questions,
make their joyful noise.

___________________________

Karen Warinsky began publishing poetry in 2011 and was named as a finalist in the Montreal International Poetry Contest in 2013. Her work appears in several anthologies including Nuclear Impact: Broken Atoms in Our Hands, the 2019 Mizmor Anthology, the 2024 National and International Goddess Anthology, and E-zines including Blue Heron, Circumference, Consilience, Wordpeace, and journals including The Naugatuck River Review, Silkworm and Light. Her poems have also appeared in Worcester Magazine and on The New Verse News. She is a 2023 Best of the Net nominee.