The Poetry Well is a monthly column that showcases island poetry. This month includes a poem by Merna Ann Hecht.
What Could Be Gone
A place where winter still has its way
with the pulse of bare branches,
where the song in a rocky creek
is frozen until it can sing again,
where what remains cannot be tamed,
where the taste of cold air is wild and holy.
In this place spring is still
an unruly green uprising,
and there is summer with its soft collapse
of rose petals, and cornstalks standing tall
offering praise songs to the sun.
And there is autumn with bright plumes
moving in October wind, once triumphant
flags, now waving a warning
at the ones who will not protect
this place.
Too soon, will only the stars
fling our sorrow back to earth?