sway back
in shouting dark-green leaves

move as gleaming birds

be the music of cranes
pretending to be clouds
before days of opportunities
have passed

the world is moving beyond us
as elusive as air in our hands

it is hard to keep up

I keep falling back
flailing at nothing
I can ever hold

at least I have you

the solid center of you
in the kitchen washing the dishes

soon you’ll dry your hands
and walk into my room
as if you were light

what more do I need

let the yellow and spotted leaves
fall to the Nothingness
I will hold onto you as long as I can

let birds find dark trees
bringing light to them

I want the light surrounding your body
entering me

let cranes build nests
of stacked sticks like parapets

I know you will be here

 

 

 

 

Martin Willitts Jr has 20 chapbooks including the winner of the Turtle Island Quarterly Editor’s Choice Award, The Wire Fence Holding Back the World (Flowstone Press, 2017), plus 11 full-length collections including The Uncertain Lover (Dos Madres Press, 2018), and Home Coming Celebration (FutureCycle Press, 2019).