Here, over bristled furrows
black stick trees fracture.
Every branch nettles the white horizon.
Crows stand on the covered chessboard
castled by silos.
WINTER RETREAT III
The snow changes everything.
What's left to quarrel about?
For now, the sun is low
the icy moon indifferent.
And you are far away
near the sea. Do you wake
to the sound of turquoise?
Is your moon a white queen
or yellow stone?
Copyright 2004, Oody Petty
Oody Petty is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her poems
have appeared in several small presses and journals, most recently in Reed Magazine and
Oxford Magazine. She is non-fiction editor for The Cream City Review.