A Miracle of Birches

"At once, the birds began their son, and Betushka and the Lady danced. This time, they stopped before sunset, and the lady twined the bundle of flax around a slender birch. In no time at all, the spindle was filled with thread, and Betushka ran home happily." – from "The Birch Fairy" a Czech Fairy Tale










I remember a long
path as my first
encounter when a
young man near

the Kickapoo
River in the highlands
of the drift less coulee
region as the closest

to such a miracle
as is when there
were children to small
to small to walk

and packed in some
such backpack
where all from side
to side along the trail

were the bone bright
stands of birches
they stood deep into
the understory and seemed

a pattern by which
we could sense
a navigation of safety
similar to travel by stars

moments like these
breaths of time really
that stand inside the mind
as though they always

belonged or maybe
we have just recovered
and I now think
of the wonderful tale

of the Czeck girls
who loved to dance
in the afternoon among
the birches

as one day she met
the old beautiful lady
who asked if Betuskka
liked to dance?

to be asked to love
among love is once
in a lifetime but that
is what the birches

have always come
to say in their jagged
white bark which
is always its own song

and I seek them
for the only solace
for I have known
no birch fairies

of my own and walk
in wait for my
thousands of old
birch leaves to someday

to turn to golden
thread and fly off
onto the lush ground
as gold coins to gather