I just received my contributor's copies of the Scissortail Quarterly, which features three of my poems. This issue was actually published in March, in England, but I think my copy got lost in the Covid time mails. My thanks to editor Brian Fuchs for publishing my poems., and then sending more copies. Because this journal publishes on paper but not online, I'm posting one of these poems, a praise song to Spring, below.
You can learn more about the Scissortail Quarterly here. https://scissortailpress.com/quarterly/
Here's the poem:
The Earth Is Like
The earth is like a younger
brother,
who follows his sun around,
copying his ways, rising from the ground each day
who returns from his eternal
defeat
to eternal recurrence
Like the child
who refuses to take a nap
when his cankered eyelids are
weighted down
with the heavy visors of fatigue
It’s spring again
The earth tu-lips his favorite
rhymes
The earth demands to stay up late
to be feted with sweetmeats
and Sugar Pops
The earth is a child who stays home from school
who endlessly sings his favorite ads
who speaks truth to raindrops
who steals cigarettes from
sleeping uncles
who plays silly songs from twenty
years ago
on devices of his own devising
that only indulgent babysitters
know
who hides brother Winter’s
favorite toys
and refuses to give them back
until Christmas
A child who demands a pet
to stay up late
to eat dandelions and green
berries for supper
who demands to know a secret
and hear a brand new story every
night
In spring the earth demands to be President
that his team always win
that the wind blow only at his
back
In spring, the earth is born
yesterday
and will live forever
that green berries turn
blue, or red,
as required
That old songs will be sat
upon his knee
to sing old men back from tired
labors
to scrounge among barbs and
brambles
and smell only of lilac in May
’
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