Melting

Photo: (c) Jamie K. Reaser

You can hear it now:

the melting.

It is the composition being

performed by droplets

in metal downspouts

and off the single gutter that

should have been cleaned out

in a more timely manner.

The puddles are growing,

wider and deeper,

and I think also thicker

as the snow releases

things it caught and froze –

Mostly plant debris.

Is debris an appropriate term?

It seems judgmental in some way.

And the mountain streams coarse

more loudly than before the storm.

Has it occurred to you that streams need

otherness in order to carry on a good

conversation?

Rocks and logs and shallows and banks

and submergent vegetation

work particularly well.

I love it when a stream uses me.

What else has the capacity to melt?

I’ll leave it to you to make your own list.

All I ask is that you do this:

Put

your

own

name

on

it.

© 2013/Jamie K. Reaser

From "Snow Days: Reflections by Candlelight" (a work in progress)