Wednesday, January 26, 2022

New Poetry by Frank C. Modica










Decay   

I bicycle past half empty strip malls 
and worn-out fast food franchises 
to the edge of the April prairie.
The sun sets over the corn desert,
golden spikes pierce pink and red clouds 
over fields stripped of life,
or so it seems.

Yet nature finds a way---
weeds grow in wild profusion 
along roadsides and ditches--
velvet leaf, corn cockle, 
Powell's amaranth, Bird’s foot violet
along with a promiscuous outpouring 
of wild flowers: wild garlic, 
thimble weeds, purple milkweed. 
Life thrives cheek and jowl 
with dead coyotes, deer, possum, 
littering rural byways.

This juxtaposition feels like rough letters
incised on eroded country grave stones
battered by decades of rain and hail 
or toppled over and broken by vandals–
loud and defiant in the spring dusk,
they speak when I scan the stones with my hands, 

births and deaths humming under my fingertips.


- © Frank C. Modica 2022


Frank C. Modica is a cancer survivor and retired teacher who taught children with special needs for over 34 years.  His work is forthcoming or has appeared in Blue Mountain Review,  Lemonspouting, and  Fahmidan Journal. Frank’s first chapbook, nominated for an Eric Hoffer Book Award, was published this fall by Kelsay Books.


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