"High Dangerous" by Catherine Pierce

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend March 1, 2019   High Dangerous   Catherine Pierce

is what my sons call the flowers— purple, white, electric blue— pom-pomming bushes all along the beach town streets. I can't correct them into hydrangeas, or I won't. Bees ricochet in and out of the clustered petals, and my sons panic and dash and I tell them about good insects, pollination, but the truth is I want their fear-box full of bees. This morning the radio said tender age shelters. This morning the glaciers are retreating. How long now until the space-print backpack becomes district-policy clear? We're almost to the beach, and High dangerous! my sons yell again, their joy in having spotted something beautiful, and called it what it is.            Copyright © 2019 Catherine Pierce. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "I drafted this poem while waiting in the carpool line at my son's school. I'd been thinking all summer about this wise/funny/sad/accurate term my kids had unintentionally coined for these flowers, but it was those quiet moments of waiting in line plus the close proximity of the elementary school that set this poem in motion." —Catherine Pierce   Catherine Pierce is the author of three books of poems, including, most recently, The Tornado Is the World (Saturnalia Books, 2016). She co-directs the creative writing program at Mississippi State University and lives in Starkville, Mississippi. Photo Credit: Megan Bean / Mississippi State University Poetry by Pierce   The Tornado Is the World (Saturnalia Books, 2016) "Speaking Tree" by Joy Harjo "The Carnivorous Plants" by Marianne Boruch "Strawberrying" by May Swenson March Guest Editor: Maggie Smith   Thanks to Maggie Smith, author of Good Bones (Tupelo Press, 2017), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month's weekdays. Read a Q&A with Smith about her curatorial approach this month and find out more about our guest editors for the year. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038