Snow White

By Katherine Riegel

I dreamt I woke in winter—
even the river
silent, its tongue caught mid-
sentence, like mine
when someone looks at me
too closely. It had been years

since I understood winter
so well I knew it to be inside
my own bone-cage, since I had
smelled that kind of white.

White of the frozen rabbit
my spaniel dragged in from the back
yard, white of horse-breath in the barn,
white of birds so desperate
for seed they pretend colorlessness—

except the cardinal, drop of heat,
too neat to be blood, too brave
to be symbol. I woke in winter

and almost-knew what I had always
almost-known, back in those dark
five o’clock walks home for dinner:

something about loneliness living
in the well of the throat, something
about fur and burrowing
and black eyes
waiting for the thaw.

Katherine Riegel’s latest book, Love Songs from the End of the World (2019), is now available from Main Street Rag Publishing and Amazon. Previous full-length poetry books are What the Mouth Was Made For (FutureCycle 2013) and Castaway (FutureCycle 2010). Her collection of prose poems/short essays, Letters to Colin Firth, won the 2015 Sundress Publications Chapbook Competition. She’s also the author of two books on meditation and a larger life: There’s No Wrong Way: 44 Meditations, and The Manifesto. Katie received her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has taught writing at various colleges, most recently the University of South Florida. Her poems and essays have appeared in numerous publications, including Brevity, The Offing, Orion, Poets.org, and The Rumpus. She is co-founder and managing editor for Sweet: A Literary Confection.

 

Comments

  2. “something about loneliness living
    in the well of the throat, something
    about fur and burrowing
    and black eyes
    waiting for the thaw.”

    I enjoyed the whole poem but the last stanza was very moving. It doesn’t allow the emotions to hibernate, that’s for sure!

  3. Absolutely beautiful. Vunerability diced and under the microscope.
    ” Black eyes waiting for the thaw”
    will have me looking at the Easter bunny differently forevermore.
    Congratulations.

  5. something about loneliness living
    in the well of the throat, something
    about fur and burrowing
    and black eyes
    waiting for the thaw.

    your writing melted my thoughts!! soulful!

  6. This is truly gorgeous. Thank you, Katherine!

  7. Your. Poem spoke to me of hidden winter. The side so often unseen. I enjoy ed it thoroughly

  8. My aging bones resonated with

    It had been years

    since I understood winter
    so well I knew it to be inside
    my own bone-cage, since I had
    smelled that kind of white.

  9. Tender insight into the souls of cold and frozen souls. A sweet poignancy that pulls. Lovely. Lovely.

  10. Oh boy. You really reached back deep inside me to pull up distant pages of the past. Just perfect.

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