Marlo Bester-Sproul
Why the Eskimos Have 100 Words for Snow
Because the waters break and they slip like seals
between bowed legs and blank walls
at the edge where the winds howls—
where the wind rips snow into sheets and cuts its teeth
on the sea—snapping it into pieces
while underneath the cracks flash like watery thunder.
Because they are not soft like us.
Our language loses its footing
and snow falls from our lips with almost no thought.
It is another word for doilies
for the ice feathering beneath streetlights
and covering the lawn.
Snow lands on our ears and we are angels again sweeping across the earth.
But something is lost;
in the folds of our minds the word lies,
it rolls like a ball in from our childhood
and we are building snowmen again
while Eskimos search the horizon with coal eyes.
It is white and holds a hundred words on its tongue.
between bowed legs and blank walls
at the edge where the winds howls—
where the wind rips snow into sheets and cuts its teeth
on the sea—snapping it into pieces
while underneath the cracks flash like watery thunder.
Because they are not soft like us.
Our language loses its footing
and snow falls from our lips with almost no thought.
It is another word for doilies
for the ice feathering beneath streetlights
and covering the lawn.
Snow lands on our ears and we are angels again sweeping across the earth.
But something is lost;
in the folds of our minds the word lies,
it rolls like a ball in from our childhood
and we are building snowmen again
while Eskimos search the horizon with coal eyes.
It is white and holds a hundred words on its tongue.
Page(s) 39
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