What We Do

 

What we do or don’t
doesn’t matter ex-

cept in the moment of
doing. Love is still

the sweetest instance,
even as flowers

lose their blossoms.
In the end, darkness

will crush what remains
of us, which will be

nothing. This is not
dull metaphor, but

your final warning.

 

 

 

Red Berries

 

Red berries on the cedar branch
moving in November wind.

The hairy woodpeckers come in,
the downies, the chickadees and

finches. We are not alone
with what we’ve wrecked. Life goes on.

 

 

 

 

Tom Montag is the author of In This Place: Selected Poems 1982-2013, This Wrecked World, and The Miles No One Wants. He has been a featured poet at Atticus Review, Contemporary American Voices, Houseboat, Basil O’Flaherty Review, and Blue Heron Review. With David Graham, he is editing an anthology of poetry about small town America.