Poetry November 2011 ATLANTIC MAGAZINE

Smoke

By Greg Delanty

Plumes from two chimneys opposite the café
mingle, become each other. I know
what the smoke says. I know that life is nothing
but a brief wisp. For now, we’re together
shooting the breeze, intermingling like the smoke
that is a white shawl over the shoulders
of the invisible goddess of the cold, keeping her warm.

Greg Delanty’s recent books include Collected Poems 1986–2006 and the anthology The Word Exchange: Anglo-Saxon Poems in Translation (2010), co-edited with Michael Matto. He lives in Vermont.