Martin Willitts Jr. - Misery Loves Company / Fruit Flies

Misery Loves Company

All day, snow persists bringing shadows

and remorse, all lunatic insistence

some people have that they need to argue.

All night, snow fans across the sky

lining it white as a thirty prayers,

as we seek shelter in each other’s arms.

We only have time to resolve our issues.

Fruit Flies

Fruit flies above the horizon of the tomatoes

are a sign some tomatoes have gone bad. 

These tiny flies are as much a part of life,

unsettling and dying, as any of us.

The eye doctor says those spots are floaters,

and I will get used to them eventually. Ignoring

the flies or floaters do not make them go away.

Fruit flies have short lives and reproduce quickly.

When I remove the rotted fruit, they come back.

It is like people who hear the dead, or ones claiming

to come back from the dead seeing a bright light.

I wonder: do fruit flies hover around death’s light?

Martin Willitts Jr is a retired Librarian living in Syracuse, New York. He was nominated for 11 Pushcart and 11 Best of the Net awards. He provided his hands-on workshop “How to Make Origami Haiku Jumping Frogs” at the 2012 Massachusetts Poetry Festival. Winner of the 2012 Big River Poetry Review’s William K. Hathaway Award ; co-winner of the 2013 Bill Holm Witness Poetry Contest; winner of the 2013 “Trees” Poetry Contest; winner of the 2014 Broadsided award; winner of the 2014 Dylan Thomas International Poetry Contest.