Tall Pines

Their needles drop

like barbed stars.

This late humidity

heavies the laundry

strung along the line.

Like bodies, after.

Like a whisper, loud

enough to wake

the starched earth,

its softening,

this late in a season,

an answer trying

to swallow

your scurried

heels.

Megan Merchant (she/her) is the owner of the editing, manuscript consultation, and mentoring business Shiversong (www.shiversong.com) and holds an M.F.A. degree in International Creative Writing from UNLV. She is the author of three full-length poetry collections with Glass Lyre Press: Gravel Ghosts (2016), The Dark’s Humming (2015 Lyrebird Award), Grief Flowers (2018), four chapbooks, and a children’s book, These Words I Shaped for You (Penguin Random House). Her latest book, Before the Fevered Snow, was released in April 2020 with Stillhouse Press (NYT New & Noteworthy). She was awarded the 2016-2017 COG Literary Award, judged by Juan Felipe Herrera, the 2018 Beullah Rose Poetry Prize, second place in the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, and most recently the Inaugural Michelle Boisseau Prize. She is the editor of Pirene’s Fountain. You can find her poetry and artwork at meganmerchant.wix.com/poet.