Constance Hansen | OR THE ORB

of orange that lay before
the woodstove like a rug.

Charred cinnamon
scent of warmth, that lick

of gold, as much or more
than what it touched—

kids who smelled of salt
and the metallic tang

of Winter leading us
through Fall like dogs.

Winds that run their paws
on water, hounding

barnacled islands.
Sonorous darkness

of the sea
when the sun

is burning another
hemisphere. Girl

grown in the grey
diffusion of light

pollution will not
not fall for the heat

of the only light in sight
within radius of every

concealed horizon,
nor its contents.

 


Connie Hansen, March 4, 2022, Seattle, WA

Constance Hansen’s poetry and reviews have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Harvard Review, Four Way Review, Southern Humanities Review, Northwest Review, River Mouth Review, Volume Poetry, Psaltery & Lyre, EcoTheo Review, Moist Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. She is the Assistant Managing Editor of Poetry Northwest. Constance lives with her family in Seattle, where she teaches poetry at the Hugo House.