Today, in the safety of noon’s optimism

I allowed my thoughts to return to December

 

Though I never felt her winter,

I knew, she was colder than most.

 

Children built snowmen,

From my window, I watched

Carrots that once served as noses,

Sinking in sleet.

 

December’s evenings brought

Uncles, Aunts, Cousins, Friends.

They all came to say hello and goodbye.

Some hellos were the first in years

Their goodbyes, surely, the last.

 

And when dawn arrived,

New snowmen were built.

Some with twigs as arms,

 

And others,

without.

Their coal eyes longing for limbs

To move freely, as humans should.

 

Day by day, I watched snowmen melt

Drooping eyes, withering arms

And silly scarves.

 

From my window,

I wondered what it would be like,

To be rooted in one spot

A mouth full of pebbles

And memories evaporating like snow

 

Maria del Canto

 

Maria del Canto has been published in the literary magazine The Battered Suitcase as well as New York University’s journal for creative writing.

Listed at Duotrope
Listed with Poets & Writers
CLMP Member
List with Art Deadline
Follow us on MagCloud