Erica Goss

COVER

What a relief
to accept this interruption,
stand at the window

where a Canadian storm
writes its last chapter
in black and white.

Snow: a surface that tempts
disturbance -- yet each crystal
hides a secret sting.

The garden, updated with new skin,
enlarges from this
unexpected gift.

Forget what the garden
looked like. Think of the ocean
with its living waters

moving slowly under ice.
Take stock of your life,
how trash laps its edges

while underneath dreams
invisible gravities
press salt out of the body.

Lose all anchors, one by one.
The only authority
is the weather.

Ask the snow
to teach you patience.
Ask for cover.

Erica Goss is the author of Wild Place, a chapbook of poetry published in late 2011 by Finishing Line Press. Her poems and reviews appear in many journals. She was nominated in 2010 for a Pushcart Prize in poetry.