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Puberty, as Poem by Akhmatova

Puberty, as Poem by Akhmatova

By Jehanne Dubrow

The scarcity of milk—
that was me, and the queue
for a new pair of shoes.
I was the Russian verse
of frozen feet, the worst
winter in memory.
I was snowfall left piled
on New World Street. I was
the boots that walked me black.
In the year of the long
freeze, other girls became
warm countries, while I stayed
behind, watched the dark parade
of seasons, waiting for
that one intemperate thing.

From Prairie Schooner, Vol. 84, No. 4 (Winter 2010)

Biography

Jehanne Dubrow

Jehanne Dubrow is the author of five poetry collections, including most recently The Arranged Marriage (U of New Mexico P, 2015), Red Army Red (Northwestern UP, 2012), and Stateside (Northwestern UP, 2010). Her work has appeared in Virginia Quarterly Review, The New England Review, Ploughshares, and The New York Times Magazine. She is the Director of the Rose O'Neill Literary House and an Associate Professor of creative writing at Washington College, where she edits the national literary journal, Cherry Tree.

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