Jordana Rozenman is currently a student in the Graduate Institute at St. John’s College in Annapolis. Prior to pursuing her M.A. in Liberal Arts, Jordi was an English teacher, as well as a college counselor and dance coach for high school students. She has had poetry published in the Hill Rag, Colloquy, and Energeia, and she has been a featured poetry reader for DC literary reading series The Inner Loop and for the Capitol Hill Book Fest.
Winter: Glistening
Jordana Rozenman, St. John’s College
Walking at night with my dad
Over the top layer of snow,
Hardened and hushed in the night,
So smooth, so delicate
That I could crunch it into glittering pieces
Silently into the soft snow below and the sparkle
From the solitary lamppost between my friend's
Home and my own
Is all I could see when I looked
Down across the vast
Expanse of snow
Between our houses
Glittering, glittering,
White snow and black sky
And every step I took, in my boots
And bundle of scarf and a frozen nose,
In the quiet night
Holding its breath for the
Crystalline sake of the stars,
Crunched right through to the powder beneath
Every step and after one I looked up at my dad
How could this one swift footfall
Soft and small satisfy
Everything you needed
So wild
To strike right to the core
Of the earth and me
And if I held my body
Up gentle and careful
I could suspend myself
On top of the smooth surface and even
Glide a little but the slightest bit of
Weight cracked right through that sheet
And then of course a stomp,
Quiet and deep,
Shot perfect tracks three inches down
Across this alien landscape,
Normally my home,
Stretching out in the dark, glittering, glittering blue and silver,
Sequins sprinkled under the lamppost
Which, paired with the purple rim of the dark sky,
And the silence full of something
Hinted right to my heart
At something
What time was it, I do not know
It felt as late as the universe
Suspended
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