Winter Blues, by Courtney Sexton

The Trapper, by Rockwell Kent (USA) 1921

Winter Blues
 
Blue on blue on blue, a collection of you(s) 
through time:                    Here in the snow, tracks at your back, pelts 
in your hands, the dog in crouch points 
us toward what 
will become of this mountain once
you’re gone and with you the dream 
of fur peeled from flesh replaced 
with nylon and neoprene,
polyester sweaters, dye running in new 
chemical rivers.
 
Didn’t it used to be quieter on the ridge?
 
Or did we not know how to listen 
the way you did
for the briefest whisk of a switch,
the hitch of a hare’s breath, 
frozen in the air?

Courtney Sexton

Courtney Sexton earned her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and her PhD from the George Washington University. She is an artist, dog scientist, and the Co-founder of DC-based nonprofit literary arts organization, The Inner Loop. In addition to her work community building, Courtney is a lecturer in the Medical Humanities at Georgetown University and a postdoctoral fellow at Virginia Tech, where her research explores human-animal relationships. She is a Virginia Tech Research & Innovation Scholar (2024), Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute Fellow (2022), AAAS Mass Media Fellow (2020), and DCCAH Arts & Humanities Fellow (2018; 2022; 2025-26). Her work can be found all around.