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      April 6, 2010Sandy LonghornSelf-Portrait: November

      [audioplayer file=”https://admin.rattle.com/audio/LonghornNovember.mp3″]

      Walking home in the first hard freeze

      with ice building in layers on the slick surfaces
      of roads and bridges, my breath plumes
      before me and I cough on the brittle air.
      I tread on the safer grass-lined ditch,
      the creek bank’s thick mud, stiff like setting plaster.
      The sun fades behind the trees, and I am insular,
      wrapped in a dim, sky-heavy day and counting
      the weeks until spring unlocks winter’s heavy door.

      When the forecast calls for the worst,
      I let the tap in the stainless steel sink
      run all night and I dream of songbirds,
      warblers and orioles, their pipe-cleaner legs
      trapped on iced-over branches, too exhausted
      to do anything but sing. Their orange
      and yellow feathers drop to the snow–
      false flames I gather in my bare hands
      and bring to my mouth in hunger.
      I wake to the sound of the water heater kicking in,
      to the metallic bite of birch bark and rust in my throat.

      from #19 - Summer 2003