Poem by Marsha Mittman

VIGIL

“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places…”
J.R.R. Tolkien

It was light once
Before the land imploded

Before the shutdown
Before children shuddered

The sun shone then
And the moon

Appeared crisp and clear
Not like now –

Shrouded in smog –
And there were animals

And growing things
Like trees and food

Instead of ration packs
And there was water –

Clean water –
There was hope then

All but obliterated now
Yet like a winter solstice

When light returns
We few wait…we wait

Though still in darkness
For the slightest glimmer

Marsha Warren Mittman’s humorous memoir, You Know You Moved to South Dakota from New York City WHEN… (Scurfpea Publishing), is a “Western Horizons Award” winner. Poems/essays/short stories have appeared in American, British, German, and Australian literary journals and anthologies, including six Chicken Soup for the Soul tales. The author of three chapbooks, Mittman’s received various poetry/prose distinctions in the US and Ireland, and a Writer’s Residency at Alabama’s Fairhope Center for Writing Arts.

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