Katherine Gunning

A little love letter for you. 💌

#uommjvizpoem
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The time before

Today the wind was strong enough to break
the branches of the gingko—how easily
they fell for how long they had been
growing—the tree more than a hundred
years old & part of the oldest species
on earth; gingkos existed before flowers—
can you imagine? How lonely, a world pre-
jasmine on the back fence, scenting
the air after rain, pre-hollyhock dolls, how
a bud and a flower became a girl in the hand
of my grandfather. What would we give
to each other to say thank you or you’re just
as beautiful or well done! I hate to even
picture it, but I know that now, like
in the time before flowers, there must be
some beauty coming so dear and wild
I can’t imagine how I lived without it.

@marinhart_

music by Frances Shelley