Ralph Culver grew up in Pittsburgh's eastern suburbs--Edgewood, Penn Hills, Forest Hills--and graduated from Churchill Area (now Woodland Hills) High School in 1970. He left Pittsburgh to study writing and literature at Goddard College in Vermont, and though he has remained a New Englander ever since, he still has a soft spot in his heart for the Pirates, chipped ham, and the Thunderbolt. His newest poetry collection is A Passable Man (MadHat Press, 2021), available in bookstores and online.
February Night
—for Hil Winter rain drummingthe pond ice beyond the gate.One light burns overthe stove, bright enough that hecan make out the easy drift of her hip slopinginto the turned-down blanket.The warm length of her.The warm length of heragainst him. Cold rains. He feeds the fire.