When the days are merely cold,
     but nights freeze the maple trees,
I bore up far as xylem
     to set the spiles, hang the buckets,
wait for warmth to move the trees to
     donate ichor. Sweet sap flows.

Born and raised in New York, James Penha (he/him🌈) has lived for the past three decades in Indonesia. Nominated for Pushcart Prizes in fiction and poetry, his work is widely published in journals and anthologies. His best newest chapbook of poems, American Daguerreotypes, is available for Kindle. His essays have appeared in The New York Daily News and The New York Times. Penha edits The New Verse News, an online journal of current-events poetry. Twitter: @JamesPenha