Three In One Poem by Dick Holmes

Three titles in search of
a poem —
'Unentitled, '
'Field of Weeds, ' and
'Still Galvanizing' —
just popped up,
one after another.
At first, I thought
they were each
looking for a separate
poem of their own, but
then it dawned on me that
they must have
come in a cluster
because they wanted
to be in one poem
together. So here they
are, under the title
'Three Titles.'

Unentitled — who or
what is entitled to anything
when everything is
God's gift?

All these beautiful weeds
I pedal by now
on my countryside
cycling route, this
big field of them,
so tall and hearty
and fragrant in warm
September Carolina,
where summer is
lingering this year
with all the timely rains
along with the sunshine
we've been getting.

A season of galvanizing,
things still galvanizing,
so ripe for change,
for reform, for whatever
you want to call it
this weird election year,
fall nearly upon us,
this sorely conflicted,
contradictory country
more fed up than ever
with misleading itself —
but fed up enough? —
informed, wise enough? —
still galvanizing,
still gouging itself blind,
till at long last
in critical condition
it can reach critical mass
and drop
from the Tree of Life
like a ballot for real change
deep down
it knew it would one day
have to cast.