red booth

review
issue s16een




 

Slow Season

The power of the evergreen lies
in its long wait, surviving by will.

While the azalea grips itself,
strangling life out of leaf to remain.

The once robust star of the bush
flutters limp and churns to loam.

Modes of life, never dying weeds,
thankless roots which persevere till Spring.

Like reptiles asleep under a dull sun,
turning by instinct, tunneling under.

We dig, huddled below ground.
We wait, light-headed in the lull.

Our turn in the slow season
lukewarm, without appetite, blind.

We hold still in hiatus, the pause
of rebirth. Patience becomes us. 

- Ann White
 
 
  

 Ann is a Pushcart Prize nominee whose poems are forthcoming or now showing in Dead Mule, Blue Fifth Review, Lily, Triplopia, HLFQ and a few other places. She is a former journalist and magazine editor living in Florida.
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