Poetry - Issue 4 | April 2009

Two poems by Sarah J. Sloat


The Snow is an Intelligence Officer

It’s one subtle secret agent, the snow,
dropping like a soft abductor.
I didn’t know it had this many fingers,
this many keyholes and doors.
There’s never been a mission
so openly covert, such
a pouring on of camouflage.
Flush with this cache, I assume
a new identity. I’m going to wear
a sherpa’s cap and let my hair grow long.
The world’s a mess, but not this morning.
The snow has kidnapped my opinions,
absconded with the list of wars.
The world and I pass by
the bakery window:
we never looked so pretty –
the snow is that smart.

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About the author

Sarah J. Sloat grew up in New Jersey, has lived in China, Kansas and Italy, and now works as an editor for a news agency in Frankfurt, Germany. Sarah’s poems have appeared in Barrelhouse, Juked, Opium, and West Branch, to name a few. Her chapbook, In the Voice of a Minor Saint (Tilt Press 2009) is reviewed here

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