Poetry

From Issue IV (2019)

Boson Particles, Light Snow

by ELIZABETH DODD

I have given up trying to count
all the snow geese. The world slides

past my skin however it will.
Juncos move through the dull grass

cloaked like the solstice in black
and pale gray.

Last week I walked to the hill’s crest,
lay myself down in the solar wind.

Maybe there’s only one
principal story, telling itself at the speed of light.

And then, and then, and then, and then—

Let this wildness be enough, a few flakes adrift
in the full field of sight.

Kissena Back Lot | PAUL ANTHONY MELHADO
Gelatin silver print, 11 x 14 in., 2000

Elizabeth Dodd

Elizabeth Dodd is the author of two collections of poetry, most recently Archetypal Light, and three collections of nonfiction, most recently Horizon’s Lens. She teaches creative writing and literature at Kansas State University.

Paul Anthony Melhado

Paul Anthony Melhado is a Jamaican-born artist of Portuguese descent. He has been a Queens resident for over forty years and holds degrees in psychology, education, and art. His photographic technique involves the use of late nineteenth-century equipment, such as the view camera, and early twentieth-century processes that utilize film with traditional darkroom printing.