falling in Austria and the Himalayas,deliquescing into the dirt of Russia,
unloading its burden of soot and dustfrom the coal plants, the coalfields and pits
of Prokopyevsk, Kiselevsk, Leninsk-Kuznetski,their soldiers deliquescing into the local cemetery,
returned from Afghanistan, Chechnya, Ukraine—blacksnow, the words sound so pretty, like black apples
from Arkansas, or the Black Diamond apple of Tibet,stained purple by sunlight, expensive and rare,
or black ice, which is treacherous, near-invisible—words like glory and country, Motherland,
Fatherland, what do they mean, does it depend, whatdo they depend on, what tree or cross or bridge hang from
while black snow falls on Greenland, its glaciersdeliquescing, another word I love, though not
what it means, what it portends, while the windspins another cluster of dead leaves from a limb
and a man in…
