Susannah Habecker © 2009 All Rights Reserved
Susannah Habecker © 2009 All Rights Reserved
The Unknown
Just listen to the falling oranges,
eagerly weaving themselves
back into soil
and tell me we understand
the quiet orgasm
of closing and opening.
Nothing here, nothing
knows the schedule, say the hungry
elbows and knees of the firefly.
Each one, redirecting
with slightest mass
the flight path of the swarm.
Passion switches
their motors off and on,
and off at last
as each drives
into the gossamer net.
If only
for this galaxy of fireflies,
night must come. The cosmos
hangs from invisible string,
they say; none of this
will last. And don’t forget—
if only by degrees,
the sun grows
weaker, the monarchs
drift into temporary graves.
Meghan L. Martin was born and raised in Hyde Park, New York and currently lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. She holds an MFA in Poetry at Arizona State University and is the recipient of a Theresa A. Wilhoit Fellowship. Her poems are currently available in Hunger Mountain and an anthology called Paradigm.