Februaries
by Jason Spear
This one will die of lush melanoma
and that one by the edge of a fallen rose.
And the surgeon, articulate in scalpels,
will dig the gardener up by degrees
and they'll exchange Greek names for flowers and disease.
So count on the daisy's breathless hesitations
or the atoms of a promise,
number the threads of thinning hair.
Count certainly up to ten fingers
and laugh with the space that gapes between.
Jason Spear is a writer and teacher of Anglophone Literature at the Cité Scolaire Internationale in Lyon, France.
Recent publications include poems in Agenda, The American Drivel Review, Eight Octaves and The Furnace Review.