THE COUNTDOWN #20 with Bob Marcacci is live. Featuring Arlene Ang and poems by:

01) Ann Bogle “Basal distance”

02) Rachel Dacus “Wine Under a Fig Tree”

03) Craig Hill “South of Clark” – Craig Hill’s Poetry Scorecard

04) Christine Klocek-Lim “Children, do not mourn the snow”

05) Rick Mullin “Amtrak Cheeseburger, Northeast Corridor”

06) Shelia Murphy – “if as if whole daylight came to be” – As/Is poet

07) Maurice Oliver – “When the Daring Among Us Flirt”

08) Pearl Pirie “Old Uncle”

09) Wm. Rike – “Crone on Time”

10) Jordan Stempleman – “The Eye”

Listen to it:

powered by ODEO

Here’s my poem:

Children, do not mourn the snow

There is fear we say. Snow breaks over our feet.
The school bus drives away, a blizzard of young faces
at the windows. We fall sometimes when ice changes
the earth and to reassure ourselves we insist
there are no disasters here. But the day meanders
against our impatience as snow engulfs our bus
again and again. Inside, children carve frost-flowers
down from the windows to watch them melt against skin.
They barely noticed the drive begin while we floundered
on the curb, swiping at the cold. The shock of it all cornered
our voices until we examined the damage that silence makes
and waved goodbye too late. When the bus comes home again,
we kiss our children’s faces, pinked in this weather, turned up
into the wind that frosts the afternoon with light.

© 2007 Christine Klocek-Lim