Snow Melt

The January thaw fools us all,
merely land’s false labor and spotting,

because a full-term spring gestates
until April — precocious ones

late March — when Sol’s cleansing finally
dissolves winter’s ivory caul. Streamside

in the hollers, the thaw reveals
both Jacob and Esau — tea green buds

and last year’s fisher-trash — blue worm boxes,
vape cartridges, corn cans, empty chaw

pouches. Bloodroot and bluets lay
entranced under a soil quilt, and

mountain laurel and rhododendron
blossoms are sweet woolgatherings

of the piney mountains to the west.

2.

In the Sixteenth Century, artist
Giuseppe Arcimboldo painted

aristocrat’s faces composed of
fruit, veggies, and grain. Did ergot

give him such license? Wouldn’t vermin
have been more accurate — that era being what

it was? Rats and lice our true brethren,
and human history a continuous

dry heave of disease, exploitation, and calamity?

3.

Last September tenth, I said I loved you
and watched an empty wave break across