HONORABLE MENTION, 2023 SMALL ORANGE EMERGING WOMAN POET HONOR

Remnants

after Eavan Boland

The Earth tilts

away from the sun.

In half-light, a neighborhood.

Snow falls too soon

on bright maple.

Leaves accept the wet weight

of winter.

Long-limbed shadows fade across white drifts.

The temperature drops

its digits.

The day folds itself into evening.

The world may never be better

than this:

A child rising

from afternoon’s play

in clouds of wintry splendor,

shaking the cold from collar and cuff,

flying homeward, as snow falls

in slants

against the flicker

of porch light.

Remnants of joy:

scarf

knit hat

mittens—

wooly,

red—

a trail

left in the snow

Betty Benson’s (she/her) poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Of Rust and Glass (LGBTQIA Fiction Anthology), RockPaperPoem, Muswell Press (QL,QL anthology), Concrete Wolf Poetry Series (anthology) and others. She is an educational psychologist by profession and a member of The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis.