Ama Birch

FOUR SEASONS

for John Forté

Knicks, Nets

Giants, Jets

We leaves are all in

this game together

Stakes are high

Odds are good

Don’t run out of luck

Or play the summer fool

Skully is a game

Children in Brownsville

Play in the street

Cap some wax

Board a competitor

A foe asphalt below

In between spring rain

Children giggle

On Eldert Lane

Orchestrating a knockout

Snowballs run amuck

Borders invaded

People displaced

Tundra wind dissipates

Winter enters uncertain fate

Faces behind windows wait

A warm date to ruminate

Spotlight sun on

Basket ballroom

Dancing floor

Dribble bounce

Pass go deep

If you can into

the young night

Fireflies in the

Vacant lot to

Autumn glisten

Radiate no more

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Ama Birch is the author of six books, an animation, and a video game. Birch has a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Performance from the State University of New York at New Paltz and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the California Institute of the Arts. Birch has been published by Grove Atlantic, Hanging Loose Press, great weather for MEDIA, Autonomedia, Lonesome Press, Fordham University, A Gathering of the Tribes, Vail/Vale, Vitrine, Insert Blanc Press, Live Mag!, May Revue, Pioneer Works, Fell Swoop, Apricity, Belladonna* Collaborative, CUNY Graduate Center, Spiral Editions, Columbia University, Luigi Ten Co., Copenhagen, The Poetry Project, and The Brooklyn Rail.