Tracy K. Smith, 2007

Winter is a boa constrictor
Contemplating a goat. Nothing moves,
Save for the river, making its way
Steadily into ice. A state of consternation.

My limbs settle into stony disuse
In this city full of streetlamps
And unimaginable sweets.
I would rather your misuse, your beard

Smelling of some other woman’s
Idle afternoons. Lately, the heart of me
Has grown to resemble a cactus
Whose on flower blooms one night only

Under the whitest,
The most disdainful of moons.