This is Snow
       

I show you snow
because the larger world drops snow today
but in saying it I become conjurer
and guide I name what falls to help you learn
the sounds of our world our snowglobe
Lately every poem I write has the word world
in it I once thought that speaking to a child
was small But I know now it is a macro act
This is snow When you hear it again may the sounds
easily find your mind sure-footed and without work
As snow blankets each crevice of the trees
and hedges again and again calling each one
home As my gaze falls over your features
so automatically now Here is your nose
Here is the wall of your plumcheek
When I look at you I tell you about weather
Perhaps I can prepare you for this place
This is snow This is sleet Speaking of precipitation
I drink your tears I don't but it's what we say to you
when you finally produce real tears with your cries
as if true sadness takes a few weeks to kick in
In your oilsheen eyes water readies itself
and within you you are building so many campsites
Here is fear Here is sadness Here is love and comfort
Here is snow You will remember none of these
moments But lodged in you will be I hope
the belief that there are at least two people
who hate whatever even considers hurting you
and also within you names of the weather
which is one way that the world whispers to us

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Copyright © 2018 Hannah Stephenson All rights reserved
from Cadence
The Kent State University Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission