Song for a seedling - Cheryl Snell

If the dark weighs you down and

crowds you in

on all sides, you might have potential.

To make sure you’re not a metaphor, attend to what’s winding around your southernmost tip. Loosen

your entanglements. Wire clippers

are good for this. Otherwise,

spin the situation, pretend to believe

in your sturdy foundations. They won’t last forever,

despite the fiction of biodegradables.

And sooner or later

your head is bound to swell,

the green bursting to where the sun

pulled the sky close against winter.

It will open you like a canopy.

It will announce your name to the

world.

Bio:

Cheryl Snell’s poetry includes chapbooks from Finishing Line, Pudding House, and Moira Books, among others. Her work has been nominated seven times for the Pushcart and Best of the Net anthologies, and recent poems have appeared in Eunoia Review, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, One Art, and Words & Whisper.