Sara Sowers-Wills
Polysemy in Snow
i.
The survivor survived the cold.
The survivor survived the coyotes.
The survivor survived eco-collapse
ii.
and the road. Asphalt hills sealed
in ice in colorform cracked
vinyl home disguised in time
frostlips snow bricks in static
broken channel in sepia in
dark thoughts you know the kind
in plague in plague in plastic sac-
red roots birch maple in asphalt
fossils in iron rich eyes the road.
iii.
Survived the raid on fact, fac-
simile of fertility, cleft heart
too beat to swipe left
tanks flattening clover,
insufficient to combat
the atrocity of athleisurewear
during the end of times--
the survivor presses forget-me-nots
into the sheetrock
the survivor presses
the orphans for answers
the survivor presses
his own smoldering hands
into the snow.
i.
The survivor survived the cold.
The survivor survived the coyotes.
The survivor survived eco-collapse
ii.
and the road. Asphalt hills sealed
in ice in colorform cracked
vinyl home disguised in time
frostlips snow bricks in static
broken channel in sepia in
dark thoughts you know the kind
in plague in plague in plastic sac-
red roots birch maple in asphalt
fossils in iron rich eyes the road.
iii.
Survived the raid on fact, fac-
simile of fertility, cleft heart
too beat to swipe left
tanks flattening clover,
insufficient to combat
the atrocity of athleisurewear
during the end of times--
the survivor presses forget-me-nots
into the sheetrock
the survivor presses
the orphans for answers
the survivor presses
his own smoldering hands
into the snow.
--
Sara Sowers-Wills teaches linguistics and writing at the University of Minnesota Duluth, where she writes and pursues research in cognitive linguistics, sound system development, and constructed languages. Her poems have appeared in Pleiades, Interim, and Denver Quarterly. She is inspired by the explosive sunrises and extreme cold in Duluth, Minnesota, where she lives with her husband and two daughters.
Sara Sowers-Wills teaches linguistics and writing at the University of Minnesota Duluth, where she writes and pursues research in cognitive linguistics, sound system development, and constructed languages. Her poems have appeared in Pleiades, Interim, and Denver Quarterly. She is inspired by the explosive sunrises and extreme cold in Duluth, Minnesota, where she lives with her husband and two daughters.