december
falls
relentlessly
white
snow
piles up
obscuring
the red front door
wind
scrapes its fingernails
across
trembling
windowpanes
power
lines
wave
outside
like
errant jump ropes
in
this double dutch
war
edging
closer
to the
worn roof
here
where
somehow
with
you inside
the
battle
seems
winnable
Maria
Bennett teaches creative writing at
Hostos Community College of the City University of New York, where she has been
an Assistant Professor of English for twenty-seven years. Her original work and her translations of the
poets Nancy Morejon, Ernesto Cardenal, and Cintio Vitier have appeared in Nexus, Crab Creek Review, and Espirit.
She is currently completing the translation of the Spanish poet
Carlos Edmundo de Ory.