Doctor’s Visit, 3/20/18

Lori Noto

I’ve made love to shadows

              during the nights your folded arms,   
              failing to hold me,
              mimicked the movement
              of cranes on our bedroom wall.

​

                          The winter of me has driven

                                       the cranes away hard.

                                       Often, I look out my window, 

                                       hoping a fierce wind
                                       will come and rock a cradle still
                                       until the creaking sounds
                                       like feathers flocking home.  


                                                    Yet the wind only takes 

                                                                  from me each time it moves.
                                                                  Your arms knot and twist
                                                                  around your torso, choking bone,

​

                                                                                until I disappear

                                                                                               into the dark of our room.

                                                                                               Our winter has driven
                                                                                               us away hard, 


                                                                                but I know all too well

                                                    the warmth that a longing 

                          for the spring brings

​

 to not stay.  

I dig my hands
into frozen ground
and sow.  

Lori Noto is a Wisconsin poet. A disillusioned ex-business major, she is currently pursuing her undergraduate degree in English at UW-Green Bay. She is a 13-times published poet in Sheepshead Review, has won annual UW-Green Bay's contest for poetry from 2017 to 2019, and has also been published in Burnt Pine Magazine. Most importantly, she has made it her life mission to convince every person she meets that George Harrison was the best Beatle.

Issue VI