2 Poems by Kristin Roedell

Few things are quiet

as night snow:

there is the uninvited

past, sharp and 

certain as geometry

when geese fly;

there is age coming in slow

on a stinging tide;

there is sleep spinning

thin as blown glass.

All things snow remain

silent here;  cars slip

inaudibly to the shoulder,

children doze, bedded

in the back seat

like sled dogs.

Down at the lake,

power went out

days ago; behind curtains

candles are lit, flashlights

doubling in the downstairs

mirror. Belly to back,

your damp breath

lies on my feathered

nape; like night snow,

you fall everywhere,

mute, ubiquitous.

Few things are quiet

as your still regard.

What Jung Would Say

My knees always ache before a storm;

last night a barbed November wind

turned the madrona to the north,

branches bent horizontal

in a stiff Quaker’s broom.

Drowned birds clung

to the sagging phone lines.

This morning the dog killed a crow

flapping on the frosted steps,

its left eye socket empty.

I built a fire in a rusted barrel

and burned it; it was small

without the thirst for flight.

I thought this means

something, in the way that

dreams speak in pictures;

a key means come in,

and a shoe means go out.

I thought

if a fire with wings means

death is a ladder,

and a one eyed crow

means love is one sided,

this winter means endless.

Still, the key beneath a stone, 

the shoes behind my door

wait. There will come

the sound of ice cracking

in the birdbath.

The first black bird on the wire means

the soot of ravens will fly.


Bionote

Kristin Roedell graduated from Whitman College (B.A. English 1984) and the University of Washington Law School (J.D. 1987). Her poetry has been published in over fifty journals and books including Switched on Gutenberg, Ginosko, JAMA, Damselflypress, Frost Writing, Tacoma City Arts, and Voice Catcher Anthology. She is the author of three chapbooks: Seeing in the Dark (2009, Tomato Can Press), Girls with Gardenias (2012, Flutter Press), and Night Circus (2013, Legal Studies Forum). She has been nominated for Best of the Web and the Pushcart Prize. Her website is at
http://cicadas-sing.ucoz.com/.