Pentimento

Hiding inside the dark
And pell-mell froth
Of aspens, billowed
In a maze of foam-white bones
And tinseled in the dell,
Pressed against the scrimshaw
Of the bark, the scarves
Of wind and pillowed drifts
Of closing sky, fogs that robe
Our skin in marshmallow,
On every side surrounded
With nodes of bedded lace,
The mounded glue of snow
Holding all the swirls in place,
In the midst of all this mess,
A scrawny pine lurks modestly,
Daubed in graupel epaulettes,
Anchoring that one lone tree
In its clandestine silhouette.

December 8th–9th, 2023
Tippet Alley