At the top of the staircase there was a window.
No panicle hydrangeas for miles,
only the white aluminum siding of the next home.
The window cast light most afternoons.
This was years ago.
My calves grew strong.
The mountain laurel bloomed like fealty.
On the second floor we often missed it.
Panicles begin with a tinge of green
and blossom creamy white. I don’t recall the plants
of my earliest years. The tinsel of detritus
after our parents divorced. Odd those two
who barely grew children.
One became an avid gardener.
The other fertilized distance.
“Art is the sensuous presentation of ideas…”
Is it though?
Leaves in my window green and flutter.
Suzanne Frischkorn‘s most recent poetry collection is Whipsaw (Anhinga Press, 2024), winner of the 2025 CNY Book Award for Poetry, and finalist for the Eugene Paul Nassar Poetry Prize. Her honors include a 2026 Ragdale Residency Award, and fellowships from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The Writer’s Center, and the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. Her poems have recently appeared, or are forthcoming in The Cincinnati Review, Denver Quarterly, North American Review, SWING, and Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology. She serves as an editor for $-Poetry Is Currency, and an assistant poetry editor for Terrain.org.