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Mary Mackey

    
Jerusalem Revisited

today
just for a moment
I forgot which wars
we were fighting
who had been shot
who had been slaughtered
who was President
and how much of the arctic ice
cap had melted

on a branch above me
I saw a sparrow
who knew no history but her own
and for the space of two breaths
maybe less
I lay down my bow of burning gold
and broke my arrows of desire




    
Memories of Snow

          “Snow cover across the nation is only at 5 percent—
           the lowest since records began.”
                The Washington Post, December 3, 2021

quiet as breath
cold on our lips
as promised kisses
the sun shaped it
into mounds of diamonds
spires of ice
ephemeral cathedrals

today the paths we wander down
burn beneath our feet
the rivers are dry
the grass is gasping
in the distance
the mountains peaks
shimmer like steel

tell me my love
what dusty windborne penance
will drift over us tonight
as we sleep in each other’s arms