[Etymology]

Common yarrow (Achillea millefolium),
called “milfoil,” from millefolium,
meaning “thousand” + “leaf,”
“a thousand leaves,”

and I see them billowing
like sails, a rippling forest of sails;
I think, “A thousand ships,”
these little associations,
reinforced by Achillea,
for Achilles, who, during
the Trojan War, treated his fellow soldiers’
wounds with the plant’s extracts.

for its leaves, which are themselves
made of repeating, infinitesimal leaves,
the prototype of pointillism, the beauty,
and of chainmail, the strength,
and somehow I’m back to battlefields.
It would be easy to fall
into believing you don’t have a say
in who you are.

A thousand legacies
carried aloft by the wind,
and one of them that of a healer.

Katelyn Grimes

Katelyn Grimes (she/her) studied English and creative writing, psychology, and history at Carthage College. Originally from the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, she now lives in Chicago with her husband and their two cats. She works for an immigration services law firm while continuing to write fiction and poetry. Her work has appeared in Capsule Stories and is forthcoming in LEON Literary Review.