Contributor: Anne Britting Oleson

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Durham Bridge, nine o’clock: silent.
Trees hulk to the shore of the lake,
as dark as the still water below,
released from the thinning ice,
which still clings desperately
to the edges of the past season.

The rail is cold beneath my hands,
rough from years of fishermen leaning,
waiting, much as I do now. For what?

In the moon-blanched landscape,
I gather every movement, every feeling
to myself, becoming larger, looming,
the center of the universe.
At some point you will sense me,
radiating along the stretch of lake,
open or frozen, between us.


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Anne Britting Oleson has been published on three continents. Her books are The Church of St. Materiana (2007) and The Beauty of It (2010). She lives in Central Maine with her family.