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Lawrence Kessenich won the 2010 Strokestown International Poetry prize in Ireland in 2010. His poetry has appeared in the Sewanee Review, Atlanta Review, Poetry Ireland Review, and many other magazines. He has published five books of poetry, the novel Cinnamon Girl, and has had plays performed at many festivals. His books are available at lawrence-writer.com.

What Snow Loves

Snow loves 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
It loves the pale red eyelashes of
a 10-year-old. It loves the 12 days
of Christmas, a freshly cleared driveway,
sun sparkling off it the day after a storm.

It loves to dance through the yellow halo
of a street lamp, swirl like a dervish
across a wide-open meadow, be pushed
aside by a dog charging through. Snow
clings to the earth like a jealous lover.

Snow will keep you alive if you burrow
under it, quench your thirst if you melt it,
soothe your pain if you hold it to a cut.
Packed into balls, it will cause pain,
exploding on your face like wasp stings.

Reluctant to leave, snow hides in shadows
behind schools and apartment buildings,
sometimes long into spring, holding down
crocuses like a middle school bully
until their delicate, powerful leaves
burst free—and the snow loves that, too.

— Lawrence Kessenich

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