New Grass II

By Marc Janssen

Clouds hunt February mornings
Gallop across angry barren fields

How much more can you take
With your burnt trees
Your frozen houses
Your distance and pestilence

Clouds choke February afternoons
Slap the streets with rain
Like spit in a cherished face

An eternity of weeks
Likes the clouds
Laughs at the new grass

You may fly over this graveyard
It seems like forever
But all forevers have endings
If only for a little while.

Marc Janssen lives in a house with a wife who likes him and a cat who loathes him. Regardless of that turmoil, his poetry can be found scattered around the world in places like Pinyon, Slant, Cirque Journal, Off the Coast and Poetry Salzburg. His book, November Reconsidered was published by Cirque Press. Janssen also coordinates the Salem Poetry Project, a weekly reading, the annual Salem Poetry Festival, and was a 2020 nominee for Oregon Poet Laureate.