“This New Year”

Listen. These dragon-tooth
icicles ferried by a season
between seasons, their icy fangs
clinging to the eaves of houses
& bare branches of trees.

There’s something beautiful
here but also terrifying, snowy
mounds
this hard new year marking my
bones for bad times, & good times
to come.

I don’t know where the
lightning came from, how it
began in the left hemisphere, &
circled out the right side of my
body, leaving its mark.

In fact, I’m sleepy now. The field’s
snowy tufts of dead grass remind
me of fluffy pillows. Love, where
am I? No, I can’t lift my foolish,
right arm,

always trying to encircle & hold
joy too close. I was once a fast
walker, moving ahead & back, in
the past, fingers tapping a
ceramic shaker.

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“This New Year” first appeared in the Summer 2020 issue of the Michigan Quarterly Review.