Snow Piece

bars up, down, the sky 

these solstice days:

blue’s gone grey

green’s gone brown

brown’s froze,

stays froze

underfoot and trackless.

in forests else wise bare

except in shade of rocks

the glaciers strewed

and trees have grown around

fern-feathers

crystallize the mist

like careful candy:

green gone white and lacy

round the edge.

prisoners of expectation we

wait:

one cloud sheds

and then another:

snowpiece-shardlets,

fishscale flakes,

press underfoot

to pathway,

pile overhead

to loft.

bars go golden

in scant sun.