Leaden rooftops. Clothes on a sagging line,
stiff with cold.
The flabby arms of a woman with short
hair
shaking breadcrumbs off a tablecloth.
A shriveled man in a tank top dropping a
bag
of garbage onto the snow at his front
door.
A pair of eyes watering in the crisp cold
withdrawing from an open window.
Zhivago’s train crawling through a wintery
landscape.
Born and raised in Zanjan, a town barricaded by snow-cloaked mountains in the northwest of Iran, Mohsen Jabbari has a BA in English
Translation (English-Persian), and is currently pursuing his master’s
degree in English literature. He has been previously published, or has
poems upcoming, in Pomegranate, Shadowtrain, Esque, and Rangoli.
Striving to produce vibrant literature, he is inspired by snow, stars,
and his fiancé’s smile.