Living Room
by Marie Ponsot
The window’s old & paint-stuck in its frame.
If we force it open the glass may break.
Broken windows cut, and let in the cold
to sharpen house-warm air with outside cold
that aches to buckle every saving frame
& let the wind drive ice in through the break
till chair cupboard walls stormhit all goods break.
The family picture, wrecked, soaked in cold,
would slip wet & dangling out of its frame.
Framed, it’s a wind-break. It averts the worst cold.
