Molly Tenenbaum
Molly Tenenbaum is the author of five books of poems, including The Arborists (MoonPath, 2023); Mytheria (Two Sylvias, 2017); and The Cupboard Artist (Floating Bridge, 2012). Her first chapbook, Blue Willow, was published by Floating Bridge in 1998. Besides writing poetry, she likes drawing, gardening and playing the banjo.
2024 Jack Straw Alumni Poetry Series:
The Arborists studies the paper and sensory ephemera of life, mourning those passed on and studying how those remaining might make life matter. Branches crash down from trees while artists paint, flowers grow, cats leap and hunt, hummingbirds whirr for nectar, and people, as best they can, learn to love.
To an Aunt in Another City
You weren’t choosing a croissant
nor pressing peaches for their give and swell,
and though you’d tried two florists, on your stroll,
you hadn’t found a bright enough bouquet,
so not at bakery nor stall, but home,
crossing from bed to 911.
And though it wasn’t me you called,
you called, and who came
called the number on the wall.
There was no trick to lure the cat. We grabbed,
and she hid farther back.
We’ll take you later up the ridge.
For now, we light the incense sticks we found.
At the bakery, after we’d flown down,
emergency contacts hidden in our phones,
we looked like people eating scones.
