Royal Palms Defend Their Place
In The Condo Universe Sarah Carey Roystonea regia, commonly known as the royal palm tree, is native to Florida and is used commonly in large residential landscapes, as well as in parks and lining streets and driveways. We have heard our pinnate fingers terrify your board, which claims our roots reach deep enough to threaten your foundation. Others can address our penetration, but we hold firm in the climates and the altitudes. We impede some views, it’s true, but the association knew, or should have known, our nature when we went to ground, every snowbird’s paradise incarnate, yet how could we know, or have known, we’d grow beyond your expectations to sweep windows, thrum our fan blades past your panes to let you see us as we are: inhuman royals, who above all still must reach for creature, for that heart that beats beside our own bud heart, from which all new leaves come. |
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About the Author: Sarah Carey is a graduate of the Florida State University creative writing program. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Rattle, The Carolina Quarterly, Superstition Review, Valparaiso Review, Barrow Street, The Christian Century, UCity Review and elsewhere. Her debut poetry chapbook, The Heart Contracts, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2016. Visit her at sarahkcarey.com or on Twitter @SayCarey1.