REAL RELIGION

 

The last month of each season

feels like the next season

February feels

like March is standing right behind it

laying its hand gently on the arm

of the third week and saying

it's time now to cease these evils.

Everything should take

the shape of spring instead,

tree buds tighter than roses

pointing at the sky, a signal

for the intricate designs

of rainfall. Rainfall

and the conspiracy of growth.

We all want these gifts,

ballooning blooms and clean light.

Spring is the real religion,

the banishment of the darkside.

The people can't escape it--

catching spring inside them

like a spiritual flu,

they want its inventions,

to be born again.

The people cry hallelujah

at the cold clouds clearing.

It is February

and they can hear pretty sounds

outside winter's womb.

 

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A member of the Academy of American Poets, Adriana DiGennaro received her B.A. in literature and creative writing from Bennington College in spring 2006.  Her first book of poetry, Peripheral Vision, was published in June 2001 by Writers Ink Press. Her second book, Acts of Contrition, will be published in Spring 2007 by Windstorm Creative. Ms. DiGennaro's poetry has been featured in Red River Review,BigCityLit.Com, PoetryBay, Merge, The Aurora Review, The Boston Literary Review, The Tipton Poetry Journal, Tryst, Ancient Heart (United Kingdom), Eclectica, City Writers Review, Poetry Midwest, Esopian, Adagio Verse Quarterly, Falling Star Magazine, Flutter, Wonder Writings, Long Island Quarterly, Triplopia, Clean Sheets, Sidereality, Southern Ocean Review (New Zealand), Perigee and The Improper Hamptonian. At just 17, she was on Red River Review's 2001 list of nominees for a Pushcart Prize. Her work is also included in the following published anthologies: The Light of City and Sea (Street Press 2006), an anthology of Suffolk County poetry edited by Suffolk County Poet Laureate Daniel Thomas Moran; Southshire Pepper-Pot:  A Literary Feast With Culinary Refrains edited by Cris DiMarco (Windstorm Creative, 2006);  In Our Own Words:  A Generation Defining Itself edited by Marlow Peerse Weaver (MWE Press, 2005), Whispers of Inspiration: An Anthology of New American Poets edited by Darlene and Steven Manchester (Sunpiper Press, September 2005); Ancient Heart Magazine Poetry Anthology Vol. III edited by Richard van der Draaij (Ancient Heart Press, 2005).