Program Notes
winter is when snakes
turn into garter belts and greater & greater wind
welts up in us in
creases of white
needles of ice seed in our eyes
sift ether into ditches
thats when air hardens
to whale bone wraps us up
in girdles and the sky rings
our lives in pewter & silver
plate irons our days smooth as Dresden
the blue-in-June lakes are eyes lidded shut
with silver coins or the czarina’s jewel
boxes clasped in the knuckle
popping cold of the winter
palace and its glass eyes
dangle from ivory lace
& the air tinkles like cut glass
Dennis Cooley
Commissioned by Esther Lamneck.