The Voice of Winter

by Douglas Nordfors

 


You walking outside inside
me, I give you the shape
of deer tracks in and in,
over and over, the snow,

your eyes tracking the body,
the thin legs, through this
inconceivable world, not
like a hunter, no, your

eyes actually falling
on the snow, but achieving
less than the snow did
by falling. Into last spring

your legs walk aimlessly
parallel to the tracks,
the cold underneath your
coat opening and opening

at the seams, until you can,
it seems, hear me (I can’t hear
myself) promising meat
for flowers to eat.

 
Short Stories Magazine
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Douglas Nordfors received his BA from Columbia University and his MFA in poetry from The University of Virginia. His poems have been published in such journals as The Iowa Review, Quarterly West, Poetry Northwest, and Poet Lore, and have also appeared in the Best American Poetry series. He is the author of three books of poetry: Auras (2008), The Fate Motif (2013), and Half-Dreaming (2020), all published by Plain View Press.