Jared Carter

Legacy

In that first year, we had no names,
        they were only
Weeds, to be cut down. Yet the same
        dark peonies

Kept coming back, year after year.
        Honeysuckle
Found ways to return, to draw near
        with its tackle

And trim, its vines and its flowers
        that drop away –
Withering meant to empower
        some distant day.

Jared Carter’s most recent book of poems, The Land Itself, is from Monongahela Books in West Virginia.  He lives in Indiana.