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Poetry

Children in Winter

by Kristen Tracy

There are women living
a much longer life
in this winter.
I stand it
with its cold side
almost breaking into me.

I lie here
in night
and let myself
think of them—
some of them make it
back to me.
They hold my shoulders
press near my neck
and with their almost hands
untangle the hair
across my throat.

While they are here
they want to tell me everything—
of how I am a woman
of how the beds are growing
past their time.