Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)
Hawthorn scents the air in May, the door
to summer and to Faerie, boughs collected
for spring celebrations but never placed inside
lest an otherworldly creature accept the bid
and take a sleeping child. The blossoms share
a chemical with decaying flesh, a truth
the people surely knew: there must be death
before rebirth, loss before what’s gained
can be loved. Because we must love
the furrowed bark, the berries born
among thorns, this tree too wild to embrace
that catches the trailing hems of ghosts
and keeps them through the windy winter
to guard the crossing place, dark-eyed and grim.
What Life Is Like Here on Earth, out from Sheila-Na-Gig in May 2026, is Katherine Riegel’s fourth full-length collection of poetry. Read more.