By Ginny MacDonald
I want to tell Allie that the trout lilies are up. That wood frogs are chuckling where the marsh marigolds shove their leaves through the mud. The sandhill cranes are back, the geese, the ducks, innumerable brown and grey birds peep and chatter. All the things that were meant to come back, came back.
I want to let Allie know that the autumn leaves were beautiful when she left, and now the trees are budding out in every green. The days are long again, and I showed her kids where the wild strawberries bloom. The growing is so quick and condensed up here. I wouldn’t need to tell her that. She loved these north woods. Her children love them, too. They know the yellow birch, the wintergreen, how to keep their boots on in the mud.
I think Allie knew that her kids would be all right. We all are all right. The people she loved felt the leaves fall, we watched the snow fall, and now here is spring with trout lilies. Then will come the spring beauties, ginseng, star flowers, jack in the pulpit, lady slippers, jewel weed: all the blooms whose names I didn’t know before she taught me. And everywhere along this path, forget-me-nots.
Ginny MacDonald lives in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She grows vegetables in poor soil during a short season. Her writing has appeared in Brevity, Diagram, Hobart, Matchbook, and elsewhere.
*This essay originally appeared in the Beautiful Things series on May 8, 2023
Wow. This is heartbreaking and gorgeous in its simplicity.
This piece touched my heart. I loved the repetion-“I want to let Allie know.” and the rhythm of the whole piece. And what a perfect forget me not ending!
I loved this when I first read it (*This essay originally appeared in the Beautiful Things series on May 8, 2023), and recognized it from the first sentence again. I only read it once briefly last Spring, but powerful writing resonates, sticks with you, becomes part of you.
Absolutely gorgeous writing. A beautiful way to start the day. Bless you!
Love this. “And now here is spring with trout lilies”. They are such a sign of the beauty you write about.
This is beautiful. Thank you.
Forget-me-nots. So perfect as the closing line. This piece is truly lovely.
What an absolutely beautiful piece of writing — so much emotion. Thank you.
What a beautiful piece of writing, full of emotion and love.
Beautiful elegy. Thank you for this generous piece!
Superbly concise. Beautiful and evocative images and feelings that attend the images.
This is such an exquisitely written and felt poem. I held my breath all the way through to the last word. Thank you.
I’m in tears. This is so sweet and loving. Thank you for reminding me to remember..
I had the same experience as Jill Campbell-Mason, Stephanie Shafran, Carol Kaynor and all the rest here. Thank you, thank you.