Ancestry Populus tremuloides (Trembling aspen) Bring to this grove your longing, your pack heavy with rivers you might have swum paths you walked. A young spruce stretches towards canopy seeking a glimpse of sky, while aspens whisper what they know of loss and its antidotes. Bark feeds on sunlight, seeds seldom root, roots sustain applause as old as autumn. Encircling themselves they send forth countless September butterflies, separate from swallowtails only when they flutter to the ground and do not rise knowing beneath them roots older than ice ages, summers plentiful as stars.
Previously published in A Single Syllable of Wild (2026), Frontenac House
Angela Waldie is a land-based writer and educator, living in Treaty 7 Territory, in Calgary. Her first poetry collection, A Single Syllable of Wild, was published by Frontenac House in April 2026. Her poetry has appeared in The New Quarterly, Prairie Fire, Grain, Event, Feral, Freefall, The Antigonish Review, The Willows Wept Review, and various anthologies.