I love a wild daffodil, the one that grows where she’s planted— along a wooded highway left to her own abandon, but not abandoned. Her big yellow head leaning toward or away from the sun. Not excluded but exclusive, her trumpet heralds no one, not even the Canada geese— their long-necked honks announcing their journey. She’ll be here less than a season, grace us with green slender stems, strong enough to withstand rain and spring’s early chill. And when she goes, what remains she’ll bury deep inside the bulb of her, take a part of me with her until she returns.
January Gill O'Neil is an associate professor at Salem State University, and the author of Rewilding (2018), Misery Islands (2014), and Underlife (2009), all published by CavanKerry Press. Previously, she worked as executive director of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival, and currently serves on the boards of AWP, Mass Poetry, and Montserrat College of Art. O’Neil has received fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Cave Canem, Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, and the University of Mississippi, Oxford.
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