Alison Koffler

February

On a shore of broken bricks,
time of thorns and reeds.

Rusting iron, fretwork of cracks
in sheet ice, the gnawed jawbone

of the year.  Things seen and
unseen: Adirondack waters threading

down past dumps and mill towns,
out to the Narrows, sturgeons dreaming,

armored in deepest currents.  Salamander
sleeps, heron sleeps, time smooths the stones

of sleep, weathered wooden ladder
to the sky.  Small-pawed tracks slip

into dense thicket, red flash of cardinal,
winterberry.  A grinding of ice shards,

old snow underfoot, aged sheet of plastic,
yellowed and translucent as seal bladder.

Almost a violation to be breathing.
Gulls coast the river’s elbow,

skeins of geese bark their way south,
and the body knows how brittle the bone is.

Port Ewen, NY

photo: Alison Koffler