Essex County

Here are the fields
just tilled
and dormant
under a weak sun. It isn't
the break of day
or dusk
or even midday
only unremarkable
midmorning.

How can it ever be that
this brown slab will
be so lush
and dense
and fertile
and green
and singing
with crickets
and flashing
with fireflies
on a warm June night?

I cannot decide
what needs to be sown
and what to
patiently wait for
to emerge.

The robins know
they triple hop and
cock their heads
and pause
to listen underneath

what will be

their bright and
rusty red breasts
flashing signals
of hope
and beginning.