Suzanne Frischkorn

Victors of Tiny, Silent, Invasive Insect

Where the Ash canopy died

thickets of multiflora rose
and barberry flourish.

Hardwood saplings sprout. Sunlight
penetrates the forest.

Woodpeckers nest in dead tree
cavities, feast
on Emerald Ash Borer larvae.

Wood rabbits rebound.
They court by jumping—
one over the other,

or one leaps and the other
darts beneath.

Tell me, what did sorrow ever do?

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Suzanne Frischkorn is the author of Lit Windowpane (2008), Girl on a Bridge (2010) and five chapbooks. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including Copper Nickel, Ecotone, Indiana Review, North American Review and Verse Daily. Her honors include the Aldrich Poetry Award for her chapbook, Spring Tide, selected by Mary Oliver, an Emerging Writers Fellowship from the Writer’s Center and an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.