Fran Schumer
Linden Trees
As excited as you are for it to be spring
aren't you a bit frightened by it, too?
The crazy, wild scent of waxy hyacinths,
honeysuckle bushes, their nectar
dope to hummingbirds and butterflies.
They can't keep away.
Oh, and the Linden trees that bloom in a burst,
their treacly orange scent so overpowering,
so quick to burst on the scene,
then leave, disappear
like that boy you loved in June
who made you believe in happiness again,
and never returned,
not even to pick up his tennis racket.
Bio
Fran Schumer's poetry, fiction, and articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, The North American Review, and other publications. She won a Goodman Loan Grant Award for Fiction from the City University of New York and in 2021, a Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing poetry fellowship. Her first chapbook, Weight, was published in 2022. Her poems have received monetary and other prizes. Schumer studied political theory at college but wished she spent more time reading Keats. www.franschumer.com