'Birch Leaves' by Jamie Brown

Birch leaves flutter

like the innumerable

scraps of tattered prayer flags

tied to twisted Tibetan trees,

each one a prayer offering in

hope and supplication to an

indifferent god, like little

penitent hearts of silvergreen

moved when the wind

moves them

and sometimes when it

doesn’t

Copyright. Jamie Brown.

Jamie Brown’s writing has been widely published, including in Bay to Ocean: The Year’s Best Writing from the Eastern Shore. His The Delaware Bay: Poems was named Delaware Press Association’s Best Chapbook of Verse 2020. He founded The Broadkill Review and The Broadkill River Press. He has taught at GWU, Georgetown University, Wesley College,UD, and at the Smithsonian Institution. He was a Poetry Critic for The Washington Times. He lives and writes in Milton, Delaware.