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.