January 2022 – Tiny Seed Literary Journal

Apaja'simk - To Return

All Swim Free

31 Jan 202226 Jan 2022

In that narrow strip between the road and the woods, we are searching for the hidden entrance, marked by a concrete pylon and a dirt footpath. It’s tucked in among…

Apaja'simk - To Return

The Prodigal Arm

30 Jan 202226 Jan 2022

I cut off my arm. Numb from shoulder to hand, it didn't hurt. I used a coping saw to stop it wandering and in the garden I burnt the only…

Apaja'simk - To Return

Standing Dead

29 Jan 202226 Jan 2022

Poem by Girard Tournesol I've had a largely private poetry practice for 45 years publishing under pen name Girard Tournesol. I've published two books of poetry. My work has appeared…

Apaja'simk - To Return

A Murmuration of Starlings

28 Jan 202226 Jan 2022

Skyfall over the meadow is its usual dusky, almost sullen blue, draping itself over the tops of the ancient trees that line the path to the sea. Your absence is…

Apaja'simk - To Return

Earth remembers us all

27 Jan 202226 Jan 2022

desolate regions between kindness arid soil of heartbreak howling winds of lies empty shadows of hunger hand upon the fist the fist in the face in the dark alleys of…

Apaja'simk - To Return

Male Gentoo Penguin: Preparation for Incubation

What you need are pebbles— more—hard to find— on Antarctica Peninsula— and a spot for building your nest with expectant mate. You found the right smooth stone for wooing her…

Apaja'simk - To Return

The Fall

25 Jan 202219 Jan 2022

The leaves are in the mood the eyes hold when seduction is about to occur – that soft brilliance of invitation and the sense that a moment too long is…

Apaja'simk - To Return

Gulf Stream Winds

24 Jan 202219 Jan 2022

Poem by Christine Cock Christine worked in conservation for over 20 years. She lives in Florida in the woods and teaches yoga and qigong outdoors. She received her BA…

Apaja'simk - To Return

Again Music

23 Jan 202219 Jan 2022

With the last lazy leaving of the day’s collected warmth, the invisible air lies on my face as lightly as the soft breath of imagined spirits, with darkening night diffidently…

Apaja'simk - To Return

White Storks, Returning

22 Jan 202219 Jan 2022

white storks leaving for the west their nests, woven on rooftops electric poles and trees that touch the sky – now empty white storks gliding over lands so close and…

Apaja'simk - To Return

Gangbangers

21 Jan 202219 Jan 2022

A gang of hummingbirds the West Side Rubythroats divebomb the feeder beaking at one another— “When you’re a Jet you’re a Jet all the way” (don’t love your brother as…

Apaja'simk - To Return

Birdcharm’s End

20 Jan 202220 Jan 2022

A ruckus in the yard the asymmetry of attack and defense as two crows chase the mourning dove away A scattering of downy feathers below the compact nest sized for…

Apaja'simk - To Return

Leaf Mosaic

19 Jan 20224 Jan 2022

Photograph by Meg Freer Meg Freer teaches piano, writes poetry and does occasional freelance editing and proofreading from her home in Kingston, Ontario. Her photos, short prose and poems have…

Apaja'simk - To Return

Monarch

18 Jan 20224 Jan 2022

One evening the low slant of sunlight struck a small beech shimmering orange with thousands of monarchs huddled together at the edge of a small opening in the canopy of…

Apaja'simk - To Return

In Contrast

17 Jan 20224 Jan 2022

The monarch butterfly moves from zinnia to zinnia, drinks from each blossom, its proboscis a fueling tube filling its fragile body for the long return to Mexico. I walk four…

Apaja'simk - To Return

They must be danced

16 Jan 20224 Jan 2022

Upon Smithsonian Museum’s repatriation of Yurok regalia, August 13, 2010 For a hundred years they did not hear the chants of the old men as the moon rose, the forest…

Apaja'simk - To Return

Horsetails Return

15 Jan 20224 Jan 2022

Untamed, unwanted horsetails thrust themselves through shattered fence slats. Equisetum once grew tall as trees in the Jurassic then spread along the Nile. I pick the one that…

Apaja'simk - To Return

Returning the River

14 Jan 202218 Jan 2022

These pines know our history Our trespassing ways There are no footprints to trace here In the dark, frozen waste Among the debris of cornstalks A trail of kerosene at…

Apaja'simk - To Return

Secluded Forest

13 Jan 20224 Jan 2022

Untamed flowers are scattered amidst legions of trees. Light balances on suspended leaves, shadows mask the underside. Insects crawl unnoticed in crevices between mossy stones. A rill cleaves pine needle…

Apaja'simk - To Return

Dawn

12 Jan 20224 Jan 2022

It’s always sunrise somewhere. The new colors of day dissipate as they travel across the Earth’s bumpy surface, edging back the dark. There’s birdsong, highway hum, insect buzz, chipmunk complaint,…

Apaja'simk - To Return

the iron lady

11 Jan 202231 Dec 2021

hair an unborn rain color lips a flower-breath festival eyes a double sunset fingers in winter sift firewood ash to rescue spent nails from common burial feet in spring re-search…