Winter and Silence

By Laura Ann Reed

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            —after Tomas Tranströmer


Winter’s iron bell

mutes the white tulip and the peony.

The arguments among the jays

no longer scrape the air.

In the glacial nights my regrets

pace the corridors.

And what I’m trying to say

hangs out of reach

like the fruit of a different season.

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Laura Ann Reed is a Contributing Editor with The Montréal Review. Her poems have appeared in seven anthologies, including Poetry of Presence II, as well as in numerous journals. Her most recent work is forthcoming in Illuminations. Her forthcoming chapbook, Homage to Kafka, will be published in July, 2025. See lauraannreed.net.

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