Issue: Spring/Summer 2021
on St. Michaelmas Day
we will slice open
the soft oak apples
to see what sacrifice they bring
O St. Michael
make them ripe with writhing beings
especially worms
but this year flies would do
how I fear
silent still empty chambers
no more-than-human life
to lay at your feet in supplication
the quiet omens
of unceasing dis-ease
Erin Robertson lives in Louisville, Colorado, where she teaches outdoor nature writing classes for children (wildwriters.org). Her poetry has been published or is forthcoming in the North American Review, Poet Lore, Deep Wild Journal, SageGreenJournal.org, and FUNGI Magazine, as well as the anthologies MycoEpithalamia: Mushroom Wedding Poems, Chiaroscuro: An Anthology of Virtue & Vice, and Stories from the Age of Covid: A Collection of Tales from the Pandemic, and her work has been performed by Ars Nova Singers. Past honors include Voices of the Wilderness Artist in Residence at Koyukuk National Wildlife Refuge (Galena, Alaska), Boulder County Artist in Residence at Caribou Ranch (Nederland, Colorado), AWP Writer to Writer Mentee, Orion Environmental Writers’ Workshop Scholarship recipient, and awards in the Michael Adams Poetry Prize and Columbine Poets Members’ Contest. Her remarkable husband and two sons teach her about wonder every day. More: robertsonrambles.com, erinrobertson.org.