ornamental cherry

now that it’s dead it can shine all year long

shadblow

blossoms lost to the heat in just four days

trees drag the rippled snow with their nets

even better on the drifts than my snowshoes

digging through the blue shadows in search of food

I find the patch of moss where I once spent the night

between this ridge and the next still brown, still blue

beside the campus elms bobbing drunkenly

white versus green figure & ground switch on the striped maple

leafy muck visible through each reflected trunk

move silently where horses once paced

skinny shadows lead to thorny trunks