Summer Reflections by Brynn F.

 

It has been pollinator enchantment in my backyard this summer. What began as an idea and an experiment, caused a flurry of extraordinary winged creatures to enter my life. Bumblebees began the procession along with carpenter bees feasting on borage and sunflowers-their sweet legs full looking like pollen pantaloons. My brother and I built a house to welcome mason bees, though there are no residents yet. Sweat bees, skippers, moths, and the occasional monarch come to visit too. Cosmos, zinnias, blanket flowers, cone flowers, and different types of milkweed are here to greet any permanent residents or late summer visitors. Next year there will be more flowers to welcome local and distant pollinators. A small seed pack changed my backyard into a welcoming local sanctuary and made my heart happy to make a positive environmental impact.

Night Song by Nadia Sohn Fink

 

Sitting on the tile stairs

Waiting til the night comes

Yellow helps each stare

Talk until the night comes

Kindling of another kind

Listens to red notebooks

Welds that hold within time

Clouds, embers, notebooks

Red’s the friend of the night

Under the alternating light 

Kneeling at the flight’s edge 

Hovering, halting, stalling 

With the parting night’s edge

We, listening then falling 

Stood fast, night receding 

Seconds until burning sun

Marks the sky, keeps bleating

Until moon becomes the one 

Red’s the friend of the night

Under the alternating light 

Let the intermission yawn

Room to finish reading

Door made to fit dawn

Plugged in through feeling

Red, the friend of the night

Under the alternating light