LENTILS

Yellow lentils are boiled as the first food 
for the Ethiopian baby. My Shia friend says,
lentils are blessed by seventy prophets. Holy is the name
of the first to meet the sunrise and the last to see sunset.
Today, I am the first to rise. This is what comes,
what goes, what is endless, what must never end.

My Italian neighbor was picking lentils.
He says the round coin-like shape is considered good-luck:
the beginning of a prosperous new year.
He is so rich, he shares with his neighbors.
He does this until sunset, stars falling as lentils,
blessings from seventy prophets.


About Martin Willits:

Martin Willitts Jr's forthcoming poetry books include Waiting For The Day To Open Its Wings (UNBOUND Content), Art Is the Impression of an Artist (Edgar and Lenore's Publishing House), City Of Tents (Crisis Chronicles Press), and Swimming In the Ladle of Stars (Kattywompus Press) He is the winner of the inaugural Wild Earth Poetry Contest for his full length collection Searching For What Is Not There (Hiraeth Press).

CLEAR-CUT

The trees are clear-cut, burnt brush
baring the skull of the mountain
when emptiness slopes
a highway
to the vanishing point of land and sky.

And if we drift upwards
through stumps, pitched pines, dogwood,
jackdaws, leveled purple loosestrife, 
         all cleared and hacked away now
         for some forgotten reason,
we will get close to what makes sense —

our ambitions are empty black bags.
We leave everything unnecessary behind.


About Martin Willitts Jr.:
Martin Willitts Jr.'s forthcoming poetry books include Waiting For The Day To Open Its Wings (UNBOUND Content), Art Is the Impression of an Artist (Edgar and Lenore's Publishing House), City Of Tents (Crisis Chronicles Press), and Swimming In the Ladle of Stars (Kattywompus Press) He is the winner of the inaugural Wild Earth Poetry Contest for his full length collection Searching For What Is Not There (Hiraeth Press).