2022 JAMES APPLEWHITE POETRY PRIZE SEMIFINALIST

BY LIZA WOLFF-FRANCIS

Nest

Every three months, my husband hangs a wreath on our front door to welcome a new season. He says it brings him joy.

Just a few weeks ago, he hung a spring wreath of fake Buddleia, purple corn cob shapes atop green leaves along with some other white flower, possibly meant to be Heliotrope.

Twice, I walked outside and a bird seemed to fly out of me. I looked around, saw nothing. Then, coming home before dusk, about to climb the porch stairs, I saw the bird fly into a nest, its escape disclosing its location inside the wreath where four sky-colored eggs lay small as candied almonds. Even with the door opening and shutting, the pulse of the nest is steady still, tucked into the wreath.

Love your round egg world, little birds to be. Eggs to hatch in a round nest held by a round wreath, made home at my door. Hidden at the threshold, let the intimate details of your life entwine with mine.

LIZA WOLFF-FRANCIS has an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College. She was chosen to write in Tupelo Press’s 30/30 poetry challenge for the month of September 2020. Her writing has been widely anthologized; she has a chapbook, Language of Crossing (Swimming with Elephant Publications, 2015); and her work has most recently appeared in Wild Roof Journal, SLAB, and eMerge magazine

Raleigh, NC, resident ANN ROTH earned an MFA in Textile Design at the University of Kansas. Her varied career includes arts management and administration, commercial and non-profit galleries, museum curatorial positions, and teaching, including thirteen years at Meredith College, where she was also the gallery director. Primarily a loom weaver, she recently discovered the possibilities of hand weaving Tyvek, a material typically used in construction. In 2004, she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, which led to her selection in June 2022 as the Universal Access Artist in Residence at Artspace in Raleigh. Her work was featured in the Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability (LEAD) Conference in Raleigh in August 2022.