Amur Cork Tree

The male of the species outside
my window is beautiful
in mid-summer with his abundant
panicles bearing flowers
like a 4^th of July fireworks show.

Something inside me sparks
when the petals start to snow
the unsuspecting sidewalk.
It’s not nostalgia for winter
rather, the glimmer

of letting go
that carries me like so much
tossed confetti. The ground bees
understand as they roll with abandon
in the sweet ticker tape,

so too the shirtless man
sprinting past, stirring up
a plume of yellow. I am drunk
on this moment, barren of reason,
intoxicated by wind,

by your effervescent body
released and bubbling over—
carried in
on the soles of my shoes,
left unvacuumed.


Copyright © 2021 by AJ Saur, from Odds n’ Ends (Murmuration Press)