Tehran Snow
By Laura Foley
We formed the cold flakes into balls,
one large as a human head—
the righteous mob below
scrawling, Down With Israel,
on public fences,
so frantic with grief,
they spilled Khomeini from his coffin,
ripped fragments of shroud as keepsakes
they broke the rules to take.
On the hotel balcony,
behind bullet-pocked glass,
my children and I
knew what to do with snow.
Laura Foley is the author of six poetry collections, including, most recently, WTF and Night Ringing. Her poem “Gratitude List” won the Common Good Books poetry contest and was read by Garrison Keillor on The Writer’s Almanac. Her poem “Nine Ways of Looking at Light” won the Joe Gouveia Outermost Poetry Contest, judged by Marge Piercy. A palliative care volunteer in hospitals, with an M.A. and a M. Phil. in English Lit. from Columbia University, she lives with her partner and three big dogs among the hills of Vermont.