from JANUARY JONES

By Robin Brox

Days into year, just past

full moon, apple-flesh white

now prone to decay, re-composition

of body strung tighter

taut against cold, effort strain

makes unnatural curvature

but in moments of crisis

you push out where I turn

Concave tension, walks in too-short

sunshine on too-long legs

facing westward pull

into further chill, later setting

children, anchor and buoy

gridlock wilderness has

its own two-step, recipe optional

Year of insistent beginning,

January follows January

while blood clots thick as

thumbs promise what is

is what cannot be

Robin Brox will join fellow poets David Hadbawnik and Jonathan Skinner for a BlazeVox Books launch at 8 p.m. Saturday in Rust Belt Books, 202 Allen St. A teaching artist, marketing and publicity coordinator for Just Buffalo Literary Center and founder of the feminist press and performance ensemble Saucebox, Brox's first full-length collection of poems is titled "Sure Thing."