“No Swimming”

meltwater shimmers atop the ice

the wooden footbridge

connecting the snowy streambanks is already green

the dead oak

has sprouted fat icicles where it spans the spring

early spring creek

icicles get wavier as they near the water

locust leaves

on the flat black roof haloed in dew

where the snow has melted

the mountain’s true skin slick & glistening

far below freezing

the pond ice grows a quilt of downy hoarfrost

icy meadow

dried seedheads get to bloom a second time

south roof icicles

no less grotesque for being spindly

bone-white sticks

trapped in the cross-hatch foliage new blue ice

green ice

caps the vernal pond it’s January

slow-moving stream

only a slight shimmy in the ferns’ reflections