Aubrey Brady

Aubrey Brady has a BA in Music from Covenant College and is working on her MFA in Creative Writing with an emphasis in poetry at Lindenwood University. She currently works at Church of the Vine Anglican as their music director. She spends her days trying to keep up with two crazy little ones, playing piano, writing, and reading whenever her tiny bosses will allow. Aubrey lives in Oregon with her husband, Matthew, and their two children. Follow her on Instagram @aubreybradyart.

By Their Fruits

Half eaten apples perch precariously on our fence ledge,

The neighbors tree is shedding its abundance

As it relents to the oncoming cold.

Squirrels scramble past sticks and stubborn leaves

That cling,

To pick apples that rot upon the branch.

Hummingbirds dance around the tree,

Ignoring the murmurs of winter

And the promise of budding leaves further south,

Are filled by what appears to be dead.

The tree, now silenced in frost,

Continues to give as creatures

Whisk away what nourishment they can find,

From moldering sticks and frozen ground,

Within death – life.

We, too, must root into the cold earth

Searching for the source that allows us

Even in darkness and dying

To proffer what offerings we have,

our knotted flesh, our not quite rotten rind.

Read Aubrey’s work and more in Solum Journal Winter 2022.