Ecclesiasta

by Katherine L. Gordon

Fat Tuesday

followed by lean Lent,

the ashes of Wednesday

dry in our mouth,

we should give up winter

for forty days, wear shorts,

flowers in our hair,

penitence enough for all the frozen months

Pluto keeps Proserpina.

The Earth will not bloom,

we run out of winter clothes

and sense that war is coming:

our abbreviated uniforms will

confuse the enemy away

though no one wins

in this new Ice Age....

is there a psalm for this?

* * * * *

Katherine L. Gordon is a rural Ontario poet, publisher, judge, editor and reviewer, working to promote the voices of women poets around the world, as they are now flowering into acclaim.  She has many books, chapbooks, anthologies and collaborations with fine contemporaries whose work inspires her.  Her poems have been translated and awarded internationally.  Latest book: Piping at the End of Days, Valley Press.