Post-Op, January Ice Storm
There is this burden
as in winter when rain
falls and freezes
the weight of water
twisting cedars to the ground
A kind of great difficulty
when to move
means to break apart
like a cedar sheeted in ice
when the win
begins
Or maybe it is just
the uselessness of splendor
in the window sunlight
shimmering in the cedars
waxwings blinking
by the glass berries
From the book, Post-Diagnosis (Ithaca, New York: Firebrand Books, 1995).
Copyright © 1995 by Sandra Steingraber.