Diego Isaias Hernández Méndez, Convertiendse en Characoteles / Sorcerers Changing into Their Animal Forms (detail), 2013, oil on canvas. Arte Maya Tz’utujil Collection.
Reading Spicer’s After Lorca Thinking About Jonas and Wieners
in Boston
it doesn’t snow the way it used to
January nothing
day after dirty gray day
damp worse than freezing
sentences spoken drone
tired lips wounded
street any body stumbles
down raw-knuckled
among rubble a dream-bird
posts a sign on a rusty wrought-iron fence
reads WINTER: Everyone Welcome
to skate on thin black ice
barefoot, knife through my tongue
drown
come back snow flake—
purposeful grave
unchained senses coax
chilled-landscape late-night-walk-talk
snow’s perishable bank
_ _ naked cold
warmed by open fire
Joseph Torra edits lift. His recent chapbook is titled 16 Paintings. His poems have appeared in various magazines, including Talisman and NRG. (1992)