Answering The Generations
written by: Anne Gruner
My dad lectured me,
Eat your fruits and vegetables.
Now, my grandson interrogates me,
what is fruits and vegetables?
I don’t answer, since one question
leads to the next at his age,
which is too young to hear about
droughts, fires, floods—
how robo pollinators never worked—
and most of all, famine.
My grandmother wrote a poem,
but I only remember a few lines,
along with its title,
No Bees on the Buttercups.
No more blooms to vanquish
in our slow and sad decline,
no more stings to anguish
once we lose our most divine.
With no more hums to hear
from our precious bumble bees,
great hunger we will fear
that could bring us to our knees.
How did she know?
Anne Gruner is a Pushcart-nominated writer whose poetry has appeared in "Amsterdam Quarterly Review," "Honeyguide Literary Magazine," "Take 5ive Journal," "Beltway Poetry Quarterly," "Superpresent Magazine," "Plum Tree Tavern," "Humans of the World," "Jalmurra," "Written Tales," "Spillwords," "Topical Poetry," and "Old Mountain Press" anthologies. She is preparing her debut poetry chapbook on the changing climate. Her fiction and creative non-fiction appeared or are forthcoming in "Persimmon Tree," "Constellations: Journal of Poetry and Fiction," "Hippocampus Magazine," "Avalon Literary Review," "Silver Blade Magazine," "Chicken Soup for the Soul, "The Intelligencer," "The Cipher Brief," and "War on the Rocks."
Latest posts by Anne Gruner (see all)
- Spotlight On Writers – Anne Gruner - December 2, 2023
- Standing Watch - August 26, 2023
- Answering The Generations - June 22, 2023
