One day, all gardens sprouted
from our names, from what remained
of hearts yearning.
—Hiba Abu Nada, “Not Just Passing”

Say their names
as you walk through the woods:
hepatica, bloodroot, rue anemone.
The ephemerals. The occasional poetry of spring.
Before the trees leaf out
and the flowers die back into shade,
this is their only time.
Renee Good is dead.

Spring quickens
in the gold dust of maple pollen
and flurries of cottonwood, in root and bud,
in the green forged from prairie fire.
There is so much in the air.
There is so much happening underground.
Victoria Amelina is dead.

The dandelions have gone to seed,
and the bees have moved on to other flowers,
to the clover in the lawn and the iris in the garden,
to the honeysuckle and linden blossom.
Parnia Abbasi is dead.

January made all this color
seem impossible, the world all white and sun-forsaken,
seeds waiting in darkness to take root.
Now even the cracks in the pavement
have healed over with green,
even the rubble has begun to flower.
Hiba Abu Nada is dead.

Renee Good.
Victoria Amelina.
Parnia Abbasi.
Hiba Abu Nada.

Today the wind is turbulent
and the air is filled with seeds.

Hiba Abu Nada was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, Palestine, in October 2023. She was 32.
Parnia Abbasi was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Tehran, Iran, in June 2025. She was 23.
Victoria Amelina died as the result of a Russian airstrike in Dnipro, Ukraine, in June 2023. She was 37.
Renee Good was killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in January 2026. She was 37.