Canned

Mason jar tin lids marshaled row on row
Fruit and summer sealed against time
Shelved categorized labeled
Ready for tragedy a stockpile delight
Winter creeps then rolls then roars
Choking Polaris and the Pleiades
Starvation is waiting for us
Impatient
From deep within the pantry shadows
A lid turns
A tock reports the broken seal
Death can wait
We are having dessert

-T. Weeks
(A response to “Darest Thou Now O Soul”)