across the glacier

                                        to a clean slit in the ice

                                        blade through white fish

                                        the guide crouches

                                        a small child at the brook lip

                                        take off your mittens

                                        drink this and your hair

                                        will turn white

                                        your soul will turn pure

                                        white water white

                                        icescape white thought

                                        child becoming ice

                                        and shattering an elk

                                        calf onto birth

                                        -staggered legs

                                        adult popping

                                        white hairs from a chest

                                        sucking the cool

                                        white bulbs free

                                        what if they were wrong

                                        what if truth is heat

                                        not white heat

                                        horseshoeing into cold

                                        the heat of spring puddles

                                        spawn heat

                                        not even heat

                                        not even truth

                                        what then would this ice

                                        cube at your lips bid you

                                        let go

                                        a child’s balloon

                                        into shadeless sky