Feast of the Holy Innocents
Lisa Raatikainen

you reach up for my hand as we walk the path
because I'm the land mass that tethers you

just past Christmas but the liquid river
swelled up silt over gray matted grass

this ground wears the pattern of wind on water

and you wonder
will there be snow again?
and I say
yes
there’ll be snow

a skein of starlings unravels
from the cottonwood

Lisa Raatikainen is a poet, writer, and music teacher. Her poems and essays have appeared with Image Journal, Commonweal, Whale Road Review, U.S. Catholic, Five South, SWWIM Every Day, and elsewhere. She lives in Vermont with her family.