Incident in WinterAuthor(s): Daniel HalpernSource: The Iowa Review, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Winter, 1985), p. 77Published by: University of IowaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20156142 .

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Incident in Winter Daniel Halpern A cage went in search of a bird

-Kafka

Someone had seen him wandering

aimlessly among the trees

after a heavy snow

and called in the information.

The cars came to a standstill

at the turnaround

in the dense cloud that covered

the trees so that only basewood

was visible.

There was very little sound,

only the revolving lights of official vehicles

sweeping their scarlet beams

off tree base and mountain wall,

off the faces of passengers

backed up down the mountain.

Occasionally, the hollow, static

reproduction of an official voice

with a moment of information

was passed on.

Car exhaust puffed on air

and no one was moving. And then to the side of the road

a few men in uniform

appeared at the treeline

with a pleasant looking man

in casual dress, being led

to the road by either arm,

a prisoner in search of his crime.

77

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