Further Exposure

Figures of light and dark - these two are walking

To watch me watch drowned snow lift from the lake.

Figures of light and dark…

.

They’re returning to a town

Rattling, gasping its last.

Your blank slate, you’re black on white,

To run, as in apoideas’ time of seeking

Down the road, at Cypress Gardens, a woman

Snowflakes are swirling - boiling out

Winged winds, captives of that age-old foe

Dim, and die tonight

.

I think fifty six was a killer.

That last day, endless and genderless,

To listen, by a sputtering, smoking fire,

To matter, for flushed boys are muscular

My mind groping in mud

Blotting out -

Scrawny wolves, and you,

Clear-voiced despite its years,

It's snowing, it's returning to a town

Strong, eloquent—

.

Dismal, endless plain—

Centimetres—that height of canvas

Your impenetrable wasteland,

.

I know,

Snow haze gleams like sand.

And still,

It's snowing, drowned snow

Now I figure you for one of them

Of light and dark

Pallid waste, rattling, gasping its last

Returning to a town