December 16, 2022
The Snowdrop
In a world of caution and warnings
In a world full of departures
Comes the permanence of a snowdrop
The flower of milk and tears
Predictably returns on spindly leg
Convex back, pendulous head
Like still unfolding courage
A hopeless-looking hang with promise
Pushing through the heaviness of earth
Enduring February’s harshest winds
How could I not hear her call
She may be the heroine inside me
There’s no quitting in her
Beneath the evergreen capped in snow
​
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© the author
by Marisa Frasca
Marisa Frasca is the author of two poetry collections: Via Incanto (Bordighera Press, 2014) and Wild Fennel (Bordighera, 2019). Her poems and translations have been widely published in literary journals and anthologies, among them: Border Lines (Knopf -- Penguin Random House), The New Colossus Translation Project (American Jewish Historical Society), and The Journal of Italian
Translation (CUNY). Frasca serves on the editorial board of Arba Sicula, a non-profit that promotes Sicilian literature and folklore through its journals, Arba Sicula and Sicilia Parra.