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