With Painted Words

The Goddess

by Audrey Howitt

she burns her face in black

bark, etching new stories

on old parchment,

traces births

and deaths

in the lines around her eyes

 

her long fingers spread shoots,

green with spring thrum,

she pushes her fingers down

into snow banks

lets the green sleep awhile yet

 

wraps herself

in white hair

affixing snow sprigs

bright and brittle.

they snap

and span

frigid air.

 

white on white,

she disappears

but for her blue lips

and crown of branches

weaving stories from air.