Snow Emergency Route
By Lea Marshall
No Parking or Impeding Traffic Flow During Emergency Richmond, VA In one snow emergency, my cousins and I tied trash bags around our legs when we had no boots. In another, I stayed in bed with a man for three days, all the bread eaten, all the milk drunk. Thirteen years later I carried my girl at four months, wrapped like a lamb through the stilled city, our breath clouding the sparkling, unfolding air. We sang a song for her father. What constitutes a snow emergency? Whiteness so sudden and bright upon the forehead? Excessive festooning of trees and power lines? Instant darkening of all evergreens? A woman once discovered under a microscope two identical snowflakes. There are no snow emergencies, only human. Her fingers cold, she shut her eyes against their spidered gleaming.
Lea Marshall’s poetry has recently appeared in A-Minor and Rise Up Review. She was named a finalist for the 2023 Graybeal-Gowen Prize for Virginia Poets, and for the Diode Editions 2023 Book Contest. Her work has appeared in failbetter, BOAAT Journal, Linebreak, Unsplendid, Hayden’s Ferry Review, B O D Y, Diode Poetry Journal, Thrush Poetry Journal, Broad Street Magazine, and elsewhere. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Virginia Commonwealth University.
12/12 / Poetry Reading and Conversation with visiting poet-in-residence Nicole Cooley + local writer Caroline Cabrera / The Gallery at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 7-8:30 pm EST / Free
One workshop remains in our Workshop Series--SWWIM Lessons: From Prompt to Placement: “Surfing Submittable with Jen Karetnick – Keeping your head above water in the poetry submissions process” on 12/10 (register here). Price: $80/workshop. Time: 7:00–9:00 PM (EST). Where: Zoom.
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