Erin Belieu was born and raised in Nebraska and is the author of five poetry collections, including Slant Six, named one of the ten best books of the year by the New York Times, and Come Hither Honeycomb (Copper Canyon Press, 2020). Belieu is cofounder of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts and the founder of the Writers Resist network. She teaches in the creative writing program at the University of Houston and for the Lesley University low-residency MFA program in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The Trees Named “Glowing Embers”

by Erin Belieu

Sapling bit
in the neck

by a weedwacker.


Japanese maple,
named for coals in a grate;


one of three bought
for the top of the yard.


Little footage,
this plot,


where it thrived
at first, then ghosted away.


A spectre,
tree shaped.
People on couch
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