STIRRING
Founded in 1999, Stirring is one of the oldest continuously publishing journals on the internet.
Stirring is an electronic quarterly journal.
Founded in 1999, Stirring is one of the oldest continuously publishing journals on the internet.
Stirring is an electronic quarterly journal.
ERICA APPLETON
My mother bent like the limb of a tree,
down, smothering the crocus with her knees.
A Chrysalis hung in the shade of a Japanese Maple,
spinning in our faces like a Christmas ornament.
The thing. Liminal green like
spring itself. Bulbous and shiny— smooth.
Don’t touch it! She smacked my hand.
She cooed over it, how smart, she said.
It hung silent near her milkweed. What is
it? I asked. A green thumb, a small organ.
Something fragile and easily smashed.
A beautiful abomination, she said.
something flittered inside.
I wanted to be the tiny tomb,
but then I already was. Feeling.
Sunlight splintered across our faces, and it
blinded me.
Erica Appleton is a recent MFA graduate of the College of Charleston. She has been featured in the winning circle for CofC's undergraduate creative writing contest with her short story, "Out in Her Garden" as well as CofC's 2022 graduate level creative writing contest with her short story "The Precipice". Her poem "To Be the Greenery" was published by Pensive in 2022. Most of Erica's work centers on various forms of grief as displaced love and how it interacts with the natural world. Erica spends her free time walking along the low country eastern coast with her loving senior dog and cultivating her indoor garden.
