A Poem For Winter

This poem was first published in 1969 by Anachoreta Press in a book titled Stone-Marrow. The book was handset letterpress by an MFA student, Gayle Scherin Davis, at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. My poem “The Red Dress” is the first poem in that publication.

A Seasonal Poem

This is happening.
Outside my window
a small girl staggers
with the weight
of a hunk of snow. Now
she is breaking it
against a tree. My hands
are cold.

Outside the window
the same girl now
is on her back, she moves
first one leg then
the other, first one arm
then all at once
an angel!

There are angels covering
the lawn. Where their thighs
divide
the green grass pushes
for sun. My winter
is melting. Pieces of angels
break against my limbs.

–James Bertolino

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