The fields of golden heliopsis (false
sunflower) in their joyful blooming
can’t know whether the next moment
brings life or decline, nor can they choose it,
but there must be that point of surrender
when the flower equivalent of decision,
a determination, is made. In Michelangelo’s
David, the outcome of success or failure is
possible until the moment of action when the sun
slips into position and David slings his stone.
At solstice, the sun, like a palindrome in a zodiac,
begins its backwards run. The axis shifts the balance
toward winter; we lose summer’s sunlit provision.
The earth twirls with its face toward the sun,
then inexorably faces away again. Gather your
flowers. You must make your decision.
…..
This poem is from the chapbook The Palindrome of the Sun by Veronica Sanitate (Finishing Line Press), and can be found at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/the-palindrome-of-the-sun-by-veronica-sanitate/
Veronica Sanitate is the author of The Palindrome of the Sun (Finishing Line Press, 2026) and holds an MFA from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast Program. Her poetry manuscript Sun Standing Still was shortlisted for the Faulkner-Wisdom Creative Writing Competition. Sanitate serves as Vice President of Ocean Organics Corp. and is a founding director of both the Michigan Collaborative for Mindfulness in Education and Groundcover News, a street newspaper focused on homelessness solutions. The seventh child of Italian immigrants, she was born and raised in Detroit and now lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with her husband.
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