We climbed the mountain
up the rutted car slope
dreaming of marriage/ its rucksack of apples
we talked gardens
all the while our feet
longing for traction
sank in February snow

After a snow-fall there are no tracks
only the other side of pain
beautiful world laid bare for us

Take out your sharpest knife prepare to
cut into the canvas
and begin again

Melissa Tuckey is a poet, an activist involved in DC Poets Against the War, and a FPIF contributor. Farideh Hassanzadeh an Iranian poet, translator, and freelance journalist.