Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Martin Willitts Jr- A Poem

 
Coming from a Dark County
 
There is no fitting of silence, no secrets
in stones huge as doors.
There is a solemn weariness to the dark.
Pieces of the world the birds cannot sing
without being shot.
 
Leave the forsaken behind.
Do not look back. The past is burning.
A shade is pulled where secrets hide.
Someone swings a lantern in the fields
like a single firefly.
Huge stones open like fresh dug graves.
 
A crow sound flushes the woods.
A sorrel tilts its head towards that disappearance,
anticipating a week of tremendous loses.
 
The horizon of wind has overtaken breath.
Bitterness extends to the man in the yard
until his anger takes a turn for the worse.
 
 
 
Martin Willitts Jr won the 2014 International Dylan Thomas Poetry Award for the centennial. He has over 20 chapbooks, and 8 full length collections including forthcoming “How to Be Silent” (FutureCycle Press), and “God Is Not Amused With What You Are Doing In Her Name” (Aldrich Press).
 

1 comment:

  1. There are some lovely images here, and the poem as a whole is powerful and haunting.

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