Benjamin Gucciardi
A Sketch of Happiness in Winter
One of those nights where the wind
unbinds the stars from their constellations
and Cassiopeia bends to collect her crown
like a mother on a train
gathering spilled mints back into her tin
and far below I amble through the foothills,
whistling, trying to avoid the patches of poison oak
as I bundle wood for a fire, brushing,
probably, against the red
and jagged leaves.
Benjamin Gucciardi’s first book, West Portal, (University of Utah Press, 2021), was selected by Gabrielle Calvocoressi for the Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry. He is also the author of the chapbook I Ask My Sister’s Ghost (DIAGRAM/New Michigan Press, 2020). His poems have appeared in AGNI, Alaska Quarterly Review, Best New Poets, Harvard Review, New Ohio Review, Orion Magazine, Southern Indiana Review and other journals.
Return to November 2020 Edition
One of those nights where the wind
unbinds the stars from their constellations
and Cassiopeia bends to collect her crown
like a mother on a train
gathering spilled mints back into her tin
and far below I amble through the foothills,
whistling, trying to avoid the patches of poison oak
as I bundle wood for a fire, brushing,
probably, against the red
and jagged leaves.
Benjamin Gucciardi’s first book, West Portal, (University of Utah Press, 2021), was selected by Gabrielle Calvocoressi for the Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry. He is also the author of the chapbook I Ask My Sister’s Ghost (DIAGRAM/New Michigan Press, 2020). His poems have appeared in AGNI, Alaska Quarterly Review, Best New Poets, Harvard Review, New Ohio Review, Orion Magazine, Southern Indiana Review and other journals.
Return to November 2020 Edition