Omaha in Winter KatherineHoerth

It’s hard to be in love in Omaha in winter when the downtown streets encase in ice each morning as the city struggles to get up, and snowplows move the mountains of last night’s storm. They gouge and scrape the pavement, sullying the snow to match the sky, the psyche. Trees cast bony shadows west, to the openness, the whitening oblivion. The sun, exhausted now, takes her time to rise before she starts her crawl across the sky just to lie down in the cozy bed of the horizon.

Most fly off and leave Nebraska when she’s in this winter mood, return in spring when she dresses in forsythia. But you remain to weather out the cold.

You hold what warmth is left against your chest as frost begins to nibble on your earlobe and the barren scent of winter’s breath settles on your hair, your skin, your heart.

Katherine Hoerth is the author of five poetry collections, including the forthcoming Flare Stacks in Full Bloom (Texas Review Press, 2021). She is an assistant professor at Lamar University and editor of Lamar University Literary Press. Her writing interests include eco-poetry, feminism, and formalism. She is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters and lives near Houston.