Thoughts Are Quickly Snagged By the Dazzling View—

Jane Berger Herschlag

My gaze goes past
crystal pitcher stuffed
with pink and mauve, mums, roses,
and green heart-shaped leaves,
to the snow-skimmed deck,
benches, lawn
and sparkling lake
beyond my slider doors,
to the hill across the way,
also skimmed with snow,
and the haze
of almost naked branches,
bud-filled, promising
early bloom after
the warmest winter.

Even daff and tulip stems
have pushed themselves
up through the snow.
Yesterday, a group of grazing deer
darkened the whitened land.

On my fireplace hearth,
a cascade of forsythia,
that has yellowed all of February.
My second bouquet
challenging the season,
as I try to defy winter.

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Jane Berger Herschlag
Jane Berger Herschlag’s full-length poetry collection, When the Mouth Can’t Speak the Body Will, is published by Finishing Line Press.  Bully In The Spotlight, her 40-page docu-poetry chapbook is published by Pudding House Publications.    Jane taught creative writing/poetry, and curated the open mic reading series for the Writer’s Voice, NYC.