what about spring?

“what about spring?”
they ask him

“in our hands
we have some seeds
and the fallow fields have held
their curling breath all winter long.

but with a war waged against us
and occupying evil trampling
our dreams—do we dare 
to sow seeds?”




“Yes,”he says. 
“Yes—we must plant.
we must plant seeds as surely 
as we plant our feet to fervently fight 
on this our freedom ground. we must 
organize ourselves into sowers of seeds
and of hope—campaign for a harvest 
as we campaign for a battle—
turn the tractors we used to tow away tanks
back to the field to plow again.

don’t wait. Don’t hold 
your breath
there is 
no time
to lose 
no time
like the present 
for planting hopes in the ground. 

even as we plant our soldiers 
and our citizens
our mothers and fathers 
and God help us—our children—
in these snow covered fields. 

even now, we hope 
for a resurrection of more glorious
than these seeds, these little deaths
we lay down in the earth and bury.”



“Okay.’’ We say, 
turning towards each other 
our mouths turning up
 behind our tears.

in this land occupied by evil—
 and visited by gratuitous death— 
we know what we have to do. 

so let our enemy see his defeat
 in these tears that water
 dormant hopes like wheat
 which in time we know 
will become a feast filling
 fragile bellies on frames of earth

—a foretaste of what’s to come.





{Photo by Rana Sawalha on Unsplash}