The 2River View 27.1 (Fall 2022)
 
 

Sara Ries Dziekonski

New Year’s Eve

Midnight is a murderous
train. Soon it will steal
the last tracks of 2020,
so my husband borrows an ax
to chop our dead neighbor’s
discarded bookcase
into fuel for our fire.
We sit on camp chairs
around the fire pit
beside the backyard carriage house
that is just
black windows now.

We sip the wine a little slower,
as though it were the blood
of Christ, and the moon
melts on our tongues
like a communion wafer.
The flames sew lace
across our skin
and we pull up our blankets of smoke.
All December
our neighbor’s tree glowed godlike
in his window’s altar.
  

Sara Ries Dziekonski is the author of Come In, We’re Open; Snow Angels on the Living Room Floor; and Marrying Maracuyá. “Fish Fry Daughter” was selected by Ted Kooser for his American Life in Poetry column. She is an editor and teacher for Keep St. Pete Lit. website

 
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