Poem: Leaf In Ice

 

Leaf In Ice

 

miniature mammoth,

gashed by a small, giant wound,

 this leaf in ice

archived in a barren field,

a place where hurt and predators

don’t matter.

 

it would take an axe

to chop the false fossil out,

to disprove the fantasy

of its adamantine cocoon;

 

and for me to remember

that the glaze of January is only a mirror

in which certain people, like myself,

choose to see fey creatures. 

sadly,

 

decaying foliage,

or forlorn bits of trash,

clasped by January ice,

these they are not specters

lucky to find their way home.

yes,

 

it would take a mental hammer

to free what the cold made fanciful.

April, though, will unleash it all,

liquefy whatever anchor, or genie bottle,

my eye chose to associate with magic:

 

‘a mammoth in a leaf!’

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1/28/24

"There are times when dreams sustain us more than facts"