My years:
a furrow cleaved by a boat
over which the lake heals
over which the ice re-forms,
a contrail streaking
and dissolving like a thought
on the tongue’s brink.
I tremble—a drop of water
on the tip of an icicle,
my belly swelling,
I cannot keep my shape.
I will be sublimated to vapor.
Not enough:
pebbles at the empty grave,
at the columbarium,
fleeting reminiscences
in the minds of those still themselves—
speeding and cleaving—
brief condensations
like frost smoke rising
over black holes
in a frozen sea.
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 18, Issue 1.
Judy Kronenfeld’s most recent books of poetry are Shimmer (WordTech Editions, 2012) and the second edition of Light Lowering in Diminished Sevenths, (Antrim House, 2012), winner of the 2007 Litchfield Review Poetry Book Prize; her most recent chapbook is Ghost Nurseries (Finishing Line, 2005). Her poems have appeared in many print and online journals (such as Calyx, Cimarron Review, Natural Bridge, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Sequestrum, The Pedestal), and in eighteen anthologies. She is Lecturer Emerita, Creative Writing Department, UC Riverside, and an Associate Editor of the online poetry journal, Poemeleon.
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