The day kept trying to dawn

and finally gave up, as if to say

today has been cancelled

due to lack of photons.

Nothing but wind and cold all

afternoon in the deepening gray

lashing us poor souls below.

At the hour of not quite twilight

the first flakes come down

slantwise like drunken

debutantes descending

a spiral staircase to

the bargain basement.

They giggle and collapse on

each other, beginning to pile up.

It may be months before we can

scrape away their costume jewelry.

 


Kurt Luchs has poems published or forthcoming in Into the Void, Antiphon, The American Journal of Poetry and The Sun Magazine. He placed second for the 2019 Fischer Poetry Prize, and won the 2019 Atlanta Review International Poetry Contest. He has written humor for the New Yorker, the Onion and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, as well as writing comedy for television and radio. His books include a humor collection, It’s Funny Until Someone Loses an Eye (Then It’s Really Funny) (2017 Sagging Meniscus Press), and a poetry chapbook, One of These Things Is Not Like the Other (2019 Finishing Line Press). More of his work, both poetry and humor, is at kurtluchs.com.

This poem was first published in Crosswinds Poetry Journal.