March Ice

I am looking out the window right now at a planter that grows icicles instead of flowers. The chains are sheathed in ice that glints in the afternoon sunlight. With the 70 degree weather earlier this week, we were not expecting snow, but here it is. Will it be the relatively warm winter's last breath? Below, Rosanna Warren looks at a winter day in ways I could not have imagined, but are so imaginatively precise: Ice

by Rosanna Warren

Lawn a mastodon's matted hide Roof shingles dinosaur skin From the fencepost a crow watches afternoon throttle the small white house Clouds unskeining from the maple's hands Down from his front porch The old man steps Pauses Tests his balance on a slab of light