As Among Grotesque Trees

by Millicent Borges Accardi


We amuse ourselves through the absurd
April forest, comical and childish,
dupes in this quarantine of looking
for breadcrumbs, a pathway out.
Set aside on a fool’s errand, seven times
funny and infantile, the dance of
the woods creating stockpiles of leaves,
like court hesitators we wash tree bark
And dance together, alone,
gullible and lighthearted. We pretend
this is an elongated day or game of Heads Up 7-up,
a cycle of twenty four hours of mockery
and nonsense. A fool’s errand.
We are practical jokers,
pickling radishes and purple cabbage, steeping apple
cider vinegar in warm water.
We watch too much bad television like Tiger King
and Love is Blind. Tomfoolery abounds and we
yell Rabbit, Rabbit when we wake
up in the morning, the cause of everything.


* * * * *

"As Among Grotesque Trees " is from Millicent Borges Accardi's collection Quarantine Highway (Flowersong Press, 2022).

Millicent Borges Accardi, a Portuguese-American writer has four poetry collections including Only More So (Salmon Poetry Ireland). Among her awards are fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, CantoMundo, Fulbright, Foundation for Contemporary Arts NYC (Covid grant), Creative Capacity, Fundação Luso-Americana, and Barbara Deming Foundation, “Money for Women.” She holds degrees in writing from CSULB and USC and currently lives in the hippie-arts community of Topanga, CA where she curates Kale Soup for the Soul and co-curates the Poets & Writers sponsored Loose Lips poetry readings.