When the snowbank dissolved
I found a comb and a muddy quarter.
I found the corpse of that missing mitten
still clutching some snow.

Then came snow with lightning,
beauty with a temper.
And sleet, the compromise that pleases no one;
precipitation by committee.

Out on Lake Superior the worried ice
paces up and down the shoreline
wearing itself out.

Chimneys have given up smoking.
In the balcony of the woods.
a soprano with feathers.

And upon the creek
the wicked spell is broken.
You are fee to be water now.

You are free to go.