summing my nephew, his doctor
avoids the anodyne, the passive voice
which organs now are compromised,
merely says he’s actively dying
my brother and i’ve watched wives
slide this way, my daughter too
it’s taken years in the scrub lands
to learn nothing is a weed
mullein thrives in broken soil
its leaves laying down a richness
where others flourish in its stead
before sparseness takes a turn
a fistful of blossoms each for a day
a hundred thousand seeds
sealing themselves for decades
until fire sweeps the fields
our nights fill with flowers,
our days so busy dying
# # #
George Perreault’s most recent book, Bodark County, is a collection of poems in the voices of characters living on the Llano Estacado in West Texas.
Photo: Chloe Ridgway
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