Todd Swift
Our Last Blizzard
My mother showed me the house
she had lived in fifty years ago
when she had been a girl who threw
glass at her enemies, with a pig
named Margaret. My father kept
his eyes on the deteriorating conditions
ahead, saying: soon we won’t see
a thing in front of us. For now, we
could. The town my mother no
longer lived in had big wood homes
with long, wide porches. Fir trees
stood nearby. Christmas lights.
At the end of her street, the river
was met by a green bridge.
As we crossed, we saw icy water.
My mother pointed out a view
that had once been on the two dollar
bill, before counterfeiters forced
them to use a more intricate
design. I had never loved her more
than as she showed me her school,
where she had walked and run
and where she moved to later on.
So what if the weather made us slow?
We stopped to watch a white deer
standing in a white field, not moving.
she had lived in fifty years ago
when she had been a girl who threw
glass at her enemies, with a pig
named Margaret. My father kept
his eyes on the deteriorating conditions
ahead, saying: soon we won’t see
a thing in front of us. For now, we
could. The town my mother no
longer lived in had big wood homes
with long, wide porches. Fir trees
stood nearby. Christmas lights.
At the end of her street, the river
was met by a green bridge.
As we crossed, we saw icy water.
My mother pointed out a view
that had once been on the two dollar
bill, before counterfeiters forced
them to use a more intricate
design. I had never loved her more
than as she showed me her school,
where she had walked and run
and where she moved to later on.
So what if the weather made us slow?
We stopped to watch a white deer
standing in a white field, not moving.
Page(s) 41
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The