A Black Bird with Snow-Covered Red Hills

To her they are always red hills,
even buried in snow.
She hears the earth coursing
red and brown and pink,
all the hidden melodies
beneath a white song.
The black bird,
linear and primitive,
fills most of the sky
above the low point
where two hills begin.
He thinks
he is the center
of the world, black
on white. He has no idea.

Kateri Kosek’s poetry and essays have appeared in Blueline, Creative Nonfiction, and on Terrain.org. A graduate of Vassar College and Western Connecticut State University, she teaches English at Marist and Dutchess community colleges in New York’s Hudson Valley.