WINTER ON THE ISLAND Poem by Andriana Škunca

in winter
solid trackways overgrow the sea
storms sift down to the bones of fishes

in winter
stonecracks grip the hawsers of a boat laid open
an arc of bruised sky shivers down the mast

for the dead, rough ends and days grown short

in winter
snails swell on frozen stumps
a snake stiffens on the side of the old temple

in winter
the wall drinks in the sloping fig
hardest of all, to plumb the deeps of beggary