Again ice -all its life

Again ice --all its life

this river struggled: the gathering

kept me afloat, arching my shoulders

and the slow turn

shaping the Earth, filling it with darkness

with those old mills the water-wheels

--I hardly make out the waves.

though the thrashing against my sides

is my heart gasping for air, for the cry

that lost its mouth, its breath

--it's too late now, the waves

have come to the surface

--once the moon too, huge flames

one after another, climbing past the sun

and my lips still on fire--each wave

taking root somewhere so the sea

and forever the flourishing dark

just under the ice --Spring

means nothing now, the moon

can't breathe -far out on the ice

can't warm to yellows and birdsong

-even now, leaning over the ice

this moon sees only itself

carried off and the snow on my sleeves

eating as if I were already dead.