The Girton Poetry Group

Not Averse

why i’m getting into Christmas

I’m perched inside an open window

drinking coffee that leaves rings

slowly absorbed by paper

as I am threatened to be absorbed

by the temerity of this Alaskan scene.

It may be the coldest day of the year

but no Murder of absurd black penguins

congregate this afternoon as my leg

slumbers in the warmth of the radiator

and the snow is no longer faintly falling

but grows into ice as my hair is chilled

by all the breath of Russia

(even the kitchen sink bears witness

to Soviet columns of ice).

But you seem unperturbed

your red coat an aegis to lift

cigarettes to your many mouths that

breathe words down the phone

which I’ll never hear because I feel

future lights heating, burning brighter now

that her kerosene eyes have lost their heat

and the snows and skies of memory

always diminishing make it seem

that right now sitting here coffee can make

do just as well I guess.