shadows on the snow
stretched out as if in prayer
the sound made by a spring
as ice smothers it
news that breaks and breaks
on slow snowshoes left right
here the urgent leaps
of a white-footed mouse
there a coyote pair
taking turns breaking trail
squirrels in heat
their labyrinthine urges
skeletal feathers of frost
where a vole is breathing
all just uphill from the interstate
a thing shown on maps
and a town in the mountains
taken over by mountains of snow
in every parking lot
another white peak
the pigeons rise
become a flock of rock doves
revolving in the blue
like a stuck tire
