Free-Composition

Thomas Quitzau

May 6, 2022

When oft-plentiful red bottlebrush spent

Is combed no more by busy visitors,

When you see carcasses’ inquisitors

Desert prospects, none of which prove ardent,

Along come smaller creatures, gnats or flies,

Proportional to the remains unseen

By the first responders, focused and lean,

Least noticed by some carnivorous eyes.

Wasps, most maneuverable, push away

Hummingbirds, grand and green, buzzing in place.

Bones, picked clean, present marrow’s golden tray:

Merged microbiomes must tend idle space.

Earth welcomes home elements aforethought, 

Tugging us all at the same ancient rate

That, when absent, cripples the astronaut

Whose land and life sadly do separate.

At times like these when wind settles and fades,

When we no longer seek summer’s short shades,

Soul forces of every living being

Embrace musing’s kingdoms ever freeing.

Thomas Quitzau is a poet and teacher who grew up in the Gulf Coast region and who worked for over 30 years in Houston, Texas. A survivor of Hurricane Harvey, he recently wrote a book entitled Reality Showers, and currently teaches and lives on Long Island, New York with his wife and children.