Jeffrey Smyers’ most recent poem to appear here was “Stray” (January 2014)
Witch.
By Jeffrey Smyers
I want to feel the seasons burn their light into my soul.
Breathe in the vast unknown and wilderness untold.
I long to hear the halcyon cry of crickets, locusts, birds.
Let their long-heard mentions effervesce into untamed words.
They would sing a song of seasons passing, stories ending their remembrance.
But more, they would incant a tune, a spell to lead the dances.
Whirling dervish spiral spirits sway in whistles of dried leaves.
Lead the languid, laughless, longing to All Hallow’s Eve.
Thereupon the would-be mourners’ mouths a soft-lit candle-smile glows,
Like fireflies of June, flickering as the wind blows.
The season spirit smolders softly in these ephemeral places.
Jack-o-lantern souls alight, as the umbra embraces.