Snow on the River

1
The cars of the city
sliding on the bridge
are muffled for a moment
like our words that had striven
to pile under each other,
though your own lips flap like heavenly windows
your teeth crunch like steps upon the snow before heaven's gate

heaven the spirit of god
over the water like snow
on the river.

2
and we are born like this
like puffs of snow
breathed soft around our bit of dust
falling from heaven's eye
and blown slanting down
upon the river.

3
We will drape the frozen angels
of death, and we will wait
like the hidden river waits

(6
oh, sister, my mud bank love waits for the thaw climbing up the valley
it waits like your snow-draped thoughts wait for your breath
it waits to sludge through heaven's windows
and press upon heaven's gates and erase all the tracks of our pacing there.)

4
listen,
a poem is the exhaust
falling through the cold
snapping black against the road

5.
a poem is what we leave behind
like snow on the frozen river.