The Sand Hill Review               http://www.sandhillreview.org              2010

 

 

 

 

What She Forgot to Mention about Winter

 

 

How the night air smells like Circe’s island,

like frangipani, and even the trees are a species

of rose, grapevines bound in precise chords

across the green hillsides. Orchards knee-deep

in mustard along I-5, forget-me-nots

blue in the ruts. Silver chains of salmon

hauled up mountain streams. Live oak, rattlesnake

grass, purple owl clover. Mt. Tamalpais,

a cubist nude in recline. Persimmons hung

like bright lanterns after the leaves have gone.

Houseboats in gypsy scarlets and azuls,

gray gulls and torn parchment egrets. Sculls

pulling diagonals on wide, pewter water,

the bright future en face while it pulls away.

 

Rebecca Foust