Kimberly Kralowec

[We will never gain the steep]

We will never gain the steep 
of clematis. We are more like hydrangeas, 

low to the ground, our colors dependent 
on topsoil. I know the stars are brighter 

in the country, brighter when I look away 
from them. But not every brightening

turns out to be dawn—or even light. 
Winter, for instance, is a series of studies 

for the greater masterpiece of spring. 
Now we know the difference 

between cold                 and wind. 

Hours after dark, when all 
our blood is needed for core warmth—

I touch you with numb hands. 

Kimberly Kralowec is the author of a chapbook, We Retreat into the Stillness of Our Own Bones (Tolsun Books, forthcoming May 2022). A lawyer by profession, she holds a J.D. from the University of California, Davis, School of Law, and an English degree from Pomona College in Claremont, California. Her awards include the Patrick J. Hopkins Memorial Writing Award and the F.S. Jennings Prize in Expository Writing. Originally from a small town in the San Joaquin Valley, she now lives in San Francisco and has been named one of the Top 100 Women Lawyers in California. Her poems have appeared in journals such as The Night Heron Barks, High Shelf, Star 82 Review, Birdland, and West Trestle Review.

Learn more about Kim at her poetry blog, http://www.anapoetics.com, and her law blog, http://www.uclpractitioner.com.