Emma Conlon

Silver Sage

En route to Montecatini-Terme, Federica asks us,
jet-lagged and bleary eyed, if we know how to spot

the olive trees

speckled along the sloping countryside.

Laura’s voice emerges from the fog in answer:
they’re silvery. Federica is pleased, points out

the lovely trees

hidden amongst the thickets. Silver sage,

she calls them. She tells us about
the olives, bellies swollen—

sun-ripened,

but still so bitter that you cannot

eat them straight from the branches.
You must take care to coax that

golden elixir

from the acrid flesh. Federica’s voice

floats on, weaving tapestries of histories
and flowing ever onward, identifying

the landmarks

spattering the Tuscan countryside, but

I am still dreaming of the olive trees,
silver-veined and shimmering

in the sunlight.

I too wish to coax something beautiful

from all this bitterness, to extract
what’s good, to create my own

liquid gold—

and as the trees leave me behind

the slow curve of the road,
I long to find myself amongst them,

silver-veined

and always reaching for the sun.

Emma Conlon (Instagram: @byemmaconlon Facebook: @byemmaconlon X: @byemmaconlon) is an emerging poet and a recent graduate of the University of Virginia. Her work has been featured in Eunoia Review, Pen & Pendulum, Wet Ink Haven, Merak Magazine, and Polemical Zine, among others. Her debut poetry collection, Changing of the Tides & Other Poems, was self-published in 2022. Her favorite sweet is dark chocolate (preferably with raspberries).