PROSE POETRY

ANN MICHAEL
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WAITING AGAINST WIND

Bay loudly, old worn wind! The drafts you send through gaps in house corners say winter’s not over, despite snowdrops and crocuses. Cat comes in, night harsh and cold. Ample hours for tucking into a pillow, making a seashell of the body, or for grooming white paws. Meanwhile, chowder for supper, potatoes, onions, and cream, something bulky for the belly to brake before these chilly gusts. No one here needs ask what it is we yearn for, though clearly, it’s spring—white blooms on the pear trees, vernal pools amid moss and tree roots, the cheerful trickle of thaw. Someone other than a cat should settle, sly and silky, at my side. Not that old bore Boreas with his icy snore, making the night lonelier, keeping sleep away. Receding tide, ticking clock, sky full of black holes. Wanting for warmth. Waiting.

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Ann E. Michael lives in eastern Pennsylvania. Her latest poetry collection (2024) is Abundance/Diminishment. Her work has appeared in Ninth Letter, Shenandoah, Ekphrasis Review, and many others, as well as in numerous anthologies, six chapbooks, and two previous collections. She chronicles her writing, reading, and garden on a long-running blog at www.annemichael.blog