Elegy #13 by Martin Willitts Jr.

We are all transitory — entering and withdrawing,

on the cusp of dying,

see this emergence

into pure scrubbed light.

 

Some people believe we return

as another body into troubling times.

Some say this is all there is; there isn’t any

more life than this one we are in.

 

Some witness the body and soul pulling apart,

while birds congregate,

expressing their allegros,

to see who can broadcast that news the loudest.

Martin Willitts Jr has 24 chapbooks including the winner of the Turtle Island Quarterly Editor’s Choice Award, “The Wire Fence Holding Back the World” (Flowstone Press, 2017), plus 16 full-length collections including forthcoming books “Harvest Time” (Deerbrook Press) and the Blue Light Award winner “The Temporary World”. He is an editor for Comstock Review.