the snow gone

white versus green figure & ground switch on the striped maple

mourning cloak

won’t your tongue get stuck to that icy snow?

& stopped just short of grappling wild grape tendrils

still clinging tight to a quarter inch of nothing

leafy muck visible through each reflected trunk

has sprouted fat icicles where it spans the spring

icicles get wavier as they near the water

the snow all around is flecked with black

only its inner eyelids have fallen shut

move silently where horses once paced

skinny shadows lead to thorny trunks

the setting sun fingers two witch-hazels