Unspeakable by Martin Willitts Jr.

There will be a day, an unspeakable day, 

when I will not wake up to see the world 

or the blue jay, and they will all go on without me.

That day is nearing. I hear it, crunching 

fallen, dead leaves encircling me.

Although more of the world vanishes each day.

I kiss and hug my wife often: 

as if there is no tomorrow, and who knows,

maybe there will be no more.

And, I would miss it all — driving into the country

to see the pumpkin patches; or shoveling snow;

or male blue jays warning about cats; or slow streams

tumbling over small rocks, or mountains, or sleet

clattering on windshields like tap dancers, or

heartaches of seeing everything going extinct.






Martin Willitts Jr is a retired Librarian. He has over 20 chapbooks, plus 15 full-length collections.  His most recent chapbook is "You Enter, and It All Falls Apart" (Flutter Press, 2019).