September Snow
by Jennifer Delisle
When summer ends suddenly
I see you shimmering
as above a sun-baked road.
We have known heat.
We haven’t deflated the kids’ pool,
we haven’t picked the herbs to dry
and your body glimpsed between t-shirt and dark
is brown as the unchanged hares. The robins
look bewildered by the sugar covering their food.
They miss the earth
and if you should ever fall out of love with me
I, too, want to notice.
Jennifer Bowering Delisle is the author of The Bosun Chair, a hybrid of poetry and family memoir published with Canada’s NeWest Press in 2017. Her poetry and prose have appeared in magazines and anthologies across North America. She has a PhD in English from the University of British Columbia, and regularly teaches creative writing at the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Extension. She lives in Edmonton, Canada, with her husband and two children.
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What surprising, fascinating stuff can you tell us about the origin, drafting, and/or final version of “September Snow”? Children are only indirectly referenced in the line about the kids’ pool, but the impact of parenting on a marriage is really at the root of this poem. The routines, demands, and sleeplessness of caring for young children can cause a disconnection from your partner that can feel more threatening than a dramatic argument or betrayal. This poem is at once a commentary and a kind of talisman against that threat.
Check out the write-up of the journal in The Writer.
Matter Press recently released titles from Meg Boscov, Abby Frucht, Robert McBrearty, Tori Bond, Kathy Fish, and Christopher Allen. Click here.
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Submissions
Poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction/prose poetry submissions are now closed. The reading period for standard submissions opens again September 15, 2025. Submit here.
Upcoming
09/15 • Abbie Doll
09/22 • Karen Regen Tuero
09/29 • Amy Speace
10/06 • Jennifer Edwards
10/13 • Joseph O’Day
10/20 • Carolyn Zaikowski
10/27 • Sunmisola Odusola
11/03 • Sara Cassidy
11/10 • Liz Abrams-Morley
11/17 • Alison Colwell
11/24 • Lucy Zhang
12/01 • TBD
12/08 • TBD
12/15 • TBD
12/22 • TBD
12/29 • TBD
11/17 • TBD
11/24 • TBD
12/01 • TBD
12/08 • TBD
12/15 • TBD
12/22 • TBD
12/29 • TBD