February by Margaret McGowan

Thoughts of standing
in the wind, my hair

like a peacock’s feathers
blowing above my head

the wind rumbling
as if it were a 747 taking off

for parts unknown
snow propelling itself into the air

from the black-topped
parking lot, like the bodies

of ghosts rising up from the after
life, angry pine trees

retaliating, their skinny
branches punching wildly,

but with no eyes they can’t tell
if they’re hitting their targets



Margaret McGowan is the author of Ancestors and Other Poems (2021). She was a finalist in the 2022 Stephen A. DiBiase Poetry Contest and received an honorable mention in the 2019 HVWG Poetry Contest. Her poems have been published or are forthcoming in QU, Hobart, MoonPark Review, and others.