Unseasonable — Summary

white flag silent as a flower

a soup made of water and the infinite

all this thrumming in the corn

Show the whole poemHide the poem

Learn Poems app

Try the Learn Poems app

Everything from the website trainer, and more: new exercises, voice recording and sharing, reminders, quick review.

Dave Bonta's "Unseasonable" is a tiny poem built from three quick glimpses, and it asks you to feel something rather than work something out. The first image, a white flag "silent as a flower," could suggest surrender, or peace, or simply a pale bloom. The speaker doesn't say which, and that openness is part of the pull. The title hints that something is out of its proper time, perhaps a flower or a stretch of weather, which gives the scene a gentle strangeness.

The middle image is the oddest: "a soup made of water and the infinite." It sounds like a plain, homely thing, maybe rain, mist, or a puddle, but with the vastness of the sky or the universe stirred in. The last lines turn to sound, a "thrumming in the corn," as though the field is alive with insects, wind, or something unseen. The mood is hushed, curious, and a little awed. The speaker seems to be standing still, noticing how the ordinary world hums with something much bigger than itself.

Read also

More by Dave Bonta

All poems
ContemplativeDave Bonta

Plea bargain

I hear half a beat of drum to serve time have half a hope in the meantime praise God
DreamyDave Bonta

Cibola 3

I awake in the dark and shake free of sheets & blankets, of down-filled quilt. The rituals of waking– the long, hot shower, the coffee–give
ContemplativeDave Bonta

In good light

On a maple’s pale bark, a zigzag ladder—old tooth-marks from a wandering snail? Green islands of moss