POETRY-September 2011
Poem by Karyn Lie-Nielsen
Edited by Christopher Seid
Artwork by Robin Brooks

“The Dowagers Dance”

At the top of the hayfield the fruit trees enchant
In their shabby genteel aging costumes of gray
An orchard of ancients is swaying in dance.

How their branches are opened in delicate stance
And their torsos are curved like turns in a wave
At the top of the hayfield the fruit trees enchant.

In the thunder of storms, their pirouettes slant
Or in stillness of June, a tableau is played.
An orchard of ancients is swaying in dance.

When the haymakers come sweeping vetch from their stance
Then the ladies are fanning sweet coolness and shade.
At the top of the hayfield the fruit trees enchant.

Oh their gestures are graceful, but low is the branch
And now lichen is webbed where the apples were made
Yet honored on stage still the fruit trees enchant
The gray orchard of ancients stay swaying in dance.

Karyn Lie-Nielsen’s work has been published in Poetry East and has won awards in the Maine Literary Contest. She is a graduate student in the Stonecoast MFA Creative Writing program. About “The Dowagers Dance” she says: “On the farm where I live is an ancient apple orchard. The trees, lined up as they are, look as if they are performing at center stage. This is a tribute to them. They are the Wise Women of the farm.”