What’s Next?

by Mary Chandler Philpott

What’s next is this:

cold and cold and more cold,

and February’s spindly arms,

and March’s house,

its tall and frozen pillars,

and deep echoes from its hollow chest.

I long for April.

Give me a simmer, give me rain.

It hurts to thaw.

It feels like cracking, like splitting apart.

I know this too.

(But what it really is:

We put a hand to the emptiness,

and our warm palms will it away.)

* * * * *

Mary Chandler Philpott is an MA student at the University of Virginia. She currently lives in Manassas with her fiancé Brandon and their puppy Edward Rochester.