By Shawna Ervin
Published in Issue 114, June 2024
EARLY-MORNING PLANTING
In a narrow vestibule between
alley and home, I kneel
to a soil vacancy, tap seeds
into the cold. Brittle lattice grows
against the back of garage bricks, glows
in leftover moonlight. Remnants of white paint
and last summer’s sweet-pea tendrils falter
toward dust; I wonder
if it can withstand the weight
of another year’s growth. A bee hurries pollen
from purple lily’s stamen to orange culottes
while over the pink horizon, blue insists on day.
Although reticent, wind admits
the creak of the gate’s locked latch,
rests its longing in empty bed.
C
Cockroaches scuttle
after dark. In closed
cupboards, legs
catch
on cracks in old China.
From clasped
regrets, confess your cheap
faith to circles
carved
in plaster ceiling.
Caress the stale crust
of courage. Commit
to capture,
complete
your creation.
Shawna Ervin has an MFA from Rainier Writers Workshop through Pacific Lutheran University in Washington State. She studied nonfiction and poetry and was a recipient of the Carol Houck and Linda Bierds scholarship. She is a poetry reader for Adroit Journal and an alum of Bread Loaf and Tin House conferences and will attend the Kenyon Review Teacher’s Workshop this summer. She is a member of faculty of the Tupelo Press Teen Writing Center.
Shawna attended the Mineral School residency thanks to a fellowship from the Sustainable Arts Foundation. Recent publications include poetry in Bangalore Review, Cagibi, American Literary Review, Open: Journal of Arts and Letters, and Rappahannock Review; and prose in The Delmarva Review, The Maine Review, Sonora Review, Sweet: A Literary Confection, and elsewhere. Shawna was a finalist in Ruminate’s 2021 flash essay contest and a semi-finalist in their 2022 poetry contest. Check out more work on her site.
This Shawna’s debut with Birdy. Keep your eyes peeled for more work by this talented writer.