Two Faced
Alpenglow
by Cassidy Smith
Jazzy DiMeglio
- Barbra Bretting Poetry Winner Chipping thick sheets of soiled ice
from the foot of mother’s king bed
we pant and wonder why
her crystals have amounted to this.
Mother doesn’t mind the bite
of ice on her cracking heels
as she flounders to the washroom
to shit or soak in lukewarm bathwater.
Back on her mattress she rocks
to stay warm and waits for you—
hoping you’ll loosen her frozen clutch
and kiss her swollen knuckles.
She looks up from her pillow
lynx-eyed and lonely, asks me
to set down my spade and open
her purple shades for the sun.
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