from Umbels</em>
By Iris Cushing
In the winter, there were days in which
I never stepped outside. Enclosure
in nourishment and texture. Kitchen,
soft bed, warm water, wood carried up
from the basement to the fireplace.
A day when, your node newly rooted
in me, I couldn’t get my car out
of the snow piled beside the road.
Now the turn from night to day becomes
porous. The windows always open.
When it rains, your father and I take
off our clothes and run in the high grass.
Our skin lets the world into your house.