White Descent by Charlie Bondhus


 

I went down into the bone
colored drifts, seeking
something other
than purity, brutality,
cold, peace, all
the usual associations.

I wanted to get to the bottom of it,
snow, to its heart
of many colors.
I wanted to ask why the days
had become so short, what price
for white resplendence.

I sank to my ankles
and the snow said
because God promised
he would never again destroy
the world in a flood.

I sank to my knees
and the snow said
because God,
like the rest of us,
knows about loopholes.

I sank past my hips
and the snow said
even angels need to shed
old feathers.

I sank to my neck
and the snow said
because everything
is meant to be beautiful.

My feet touched brown earth.
Only my eyes and the top
of my head
were visible
above the drifts.

Filling my ears,
a wet, white noise.
I understood.

 

Snowblind by Kevin Hinkle

Snowblind by Kevin Hinkle

 

 

Read A Poet in Conversation(s) With Art by Jessamyn Smyth

 

 

Charlie Bondhus’s second poetry book, All the Heat We Could Carry, won the 2013 Main Street Rag Award and the Publishing Triangle’s 2014 Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry. His work appears or is set to appear in numerous journals. He is the Poetry Editor at The Good Men Project (goodmenproject.com).

Kevin Hinkle‘s work has appeared in juried exhibits and journals including the Baltimore Review, Grey Sparrow Journal, and The Tulane Review. Both his minimalist and layered images reveal elements of abstract expressionism. He is now absorbing work by artists such as Letha Wilson, who incorporate photography in mixed media work.