Cottonwood trees are producing more fluff.
I am jealous of things so aptly named.

The verb take can be a phrasal verb
with so many meanings:
take off, take up, take in, take away.

If I had a name it would be the sound
of a bird making its nest in the empty gutter.

It would be the sound of wings flitting over roofs,
a thirst without forecast, a number
so vast it doesn’t need to be counted.

How about a name so simple you forget
it ever meant something?
A name that takes nothing away?

Esther Sadoff is a teacher and writer from Columbus, Ohio. She is the author of four chapbooks: Some Wild Woman (Finishing Line Press), Serendipity in France (Finishing Line Press), Dear Silence (Kelsay Books), and If I Hold my Breath (Bottlecap Press). She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Hole in the Head Review, and she is the recent winner of the Women of Ohio 2025 Poetry Award.