Snow Day

Brookings, South Dakota, 1978

The radio gives what I can't get for Christmas:
my father and mother exchanging smiles.
My brother and I have won, have won,
and the crystalline day is ours.

Muffled in homemade scarves and mittens,
our bodies are tender as newborn birds.
We lie in the snow and spread our wings,
forgiven, loved, and free.

Anna Primrose Bendiksen

Anna Primrose Bendiksen (anna.bendiksen@sbcglobal.net) used to annoy her teachers by reading ahead in the textbook.