February is the worst month.
I'm sorry if you happen to be born in it
It was probably horrendous
trying to get your mother to the hospital in
4 feet of snow in minus 20 weather.
I hope you were a quiet baby and good to them as you got older.
February is the worst month.
It's been dark since November
We've turned into moles rummaging
for scraps of spring at least a month away.
Even our laughter is cold and bitter.
February is the worst month.
The old give up and die so frequently.
The frozen ground at the cemetery takes twice as long to dig.
Down they go into the permafrost and the mourners tears
stick to their faces instead of dripping off their chins.
February is the worst month.
And that's why they cut it short
and some years there is no full moon.
Even nature abhors it.
YOU ARE READING
north on 50 - canadian interior poems
Poetryas long as we live we create and break relations with fantastic efficiency. when attachments prove inconvenient, its not always the other that agrees. its the will changing people, places and things. answers in the unanswered. a pregnant pause.
