Up in the Red Mountains
by ALPIE LEIN | 2nd Place, student poetry contest
for Maren O. Mitchell
She plants handpicked words
And petunias
In poems and beds
And with delicate hands,
Folds pieces of paper
Into flocks of birds—
Airy-winged—
Unable to escape winter,
But bound to withstand time
And seasons.
Winter in the bones,
On the doorknob,
The early morning floor,
And on the porch.
“Not a good time,” she says,
Feels frozen—to the calendar day,
And stiff like the paper birds.
Hot tea, and pain, and feeding the kitty,
And pain—
Up in the red mountains,
Where winter migrates,
When birds migrate south.
“Not a good time,” she says,
I’m not sure she knows—
But blue spring is burbling in her eyes—
Held captive in a fragile body
With winter in the bones—
Still—withstanding time
And seasons
With an abundance of blissful patience—
Cultivated and watered over countless winters,
In poems, and beds.
What she knows:
“They will bloom!”
Ω
Alpie Lein graduated from TCC in December 2024. She moved back to Germany to obtain her English BA in Berlin, where she is living and working as a photographer. In her free time, she is writing poetry and prose.
Mahshid Gorjian is a multidisciplinary artist and PhD student in Geography, Planning, and Design at the University of Colorado, Denver. With a background in fine arts and creative technologies, she explores the intersection of art, culture, and environmental studies. Her work focuses on digital painting, GIS, and urban design, reflecting themes of tradition, identity, and resilience. Through her art, she aims to bridge past and present, using digital tools. See more at mahshidgorjian.artstation.com.