The Children Know All about Snow

Rebecca Cross

The snows this winter seethe.They stand in dark drifts as tall as a man.They eat the light.Marooned indoors, the children playby the window little games to pass the time:Old Maid, pinochle, whist. A night like this,the cold has weight. Branches groan beneath it.Ice creaks, too thick to crack.The snow falls clean and sharp,slicing sideways into anything alive.Small shadows edge the tree line—mink or skunk, seeking shelter from the wind.Inside, the fire blazes, candy glitters in a leaded dish.Dolls, rocking chair, checkerboardseem part of a slow explosion.Everything moves without moving.In the glass, each child has a twinalready standing on drifts, beckoning, beckoning them.Don't go outside, they imploreone another. We would have to kissblack blooms from your cheeks. We wouldhave to remove the dear perishedfingers and toes. But the snows, the snowsbeg to be tramped, to be flattened to angels,rolled into balls. The children are putting onfur-lined gloves, woolen scarves.They are grasping the hemsof stiff overcoats and won't let them go.Don't cry, they absolve. Don't you know?When it's cold enough, the cold burns.One by one, the children slip out the door.They know when it's their turn,it's their turn.

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Rebecca Cross has an MA in creative and critical writing from the University of Sussex. Her work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in The Southern ReviewSouthern Humanities ReviewHotel AmerikaQuarterly WestPoet LoreBeloit Poetry Journal, and Image, among other journals, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best New Poets. She lives in Vermont with her husband and their cat. Though she doesn’t tweet often, she can be contacted on Twitter at @uncertainguest.

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54.4

Auburn, Alabama

Auburn University

Editors
Anton DiSclafani, Rose McLarney

Managing Editor
Caitlin Rae Taylor

Poetry Editor
Rose McLarney

Southern Humanities Review is the literary quarterly published from the Department of English at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama. Founded in 1967, SHR publishes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

Work published in Southern Humanities Review is considered for Best American Essays, Best American Poetry, Best American Short Stories, New Stories from the South, Prize Stories: O. Henry Awards, and the Pushcart Prize.

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