Sonnet: Midsummer by Martin Willitts Jr.

Not since the rain wavered over our garden 

has anyone noticed the small violets 

or weeded the grass between the onions 

whose green tests for rain like fingertips.

No one noticed the birds blanketing the sky 

never singing. We never saw the switchgrass, 

although it was in every field. 

It was late; the trillium was over.

Midsummer is limping along, suppressing an urge 

to laugh high degrees of sweltering heat.

The hidden is meant to be left alone.

The secret vocabulary of rain is dark inside, 

vicious clouds. The fields praise rain. 

Birds distribute seeds across endless acres.

Martin Willitts Jr has over 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 “Dylan Thomas and the Writing Shed” (FutureCycle Press, 2017) and “Three Ages of Women” (Deerbrook Editions, 2017).