MARTIN WILLITTS JR.
SONNET: HEIRLOOM
What appears renewed — the feverfew
are close to the ground, laid out as doilies —
seems only to result in ruin: black seed casings
rubbed between my fingers, crunch, fall
to spread, making white daisies
with egg-yolk-yellow centers. What appears
to be death leads towards renewal, wanting
its turn, contemplating the next chapter.
We cannot do this returning. I envy seeds.
I recycle tomato seeds of peace vine cherry
and baseball sized Brandywine.
I plant inside during winter these starter seeds
in peat pots; rub their fuzzy stalks, smelling
tomatoes; plant; harvest; save seeds for winter.
Martin Willitts Jr. won the 2014 Dylan Thomas International Poetry Award and the Rattle Ekphrastic Challenge, June 2015 Editor’s Choice. He 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).