[Newspoetry] christmas homage

[Clint Popetz]

rock salt, not snow.
too granular, too crunchy
like some giant fucking pestle slammed into
 some mystic maui mountain mortar
  dusted us over, dusted us under

but it's cold
and i've landed on my ass twice on race street
so this must be snow

a white christmas
 not like the ones i used to know
without children
 or inlaws
  or gifts
just add scotch and chill

CHRIST IS IT QUIET
not a single car grumbles
for blocks and blocks
as i trudge to pay homage to a sacred site

the salt carpet mirrors the garish sun
bouncing its radiance upward
  right back at ya, baby
as backlighting for some birds-eye orson welles:
 a fat crow, screaming at the cast of squirrels,
  longing for his two-steak fifth-of-whiskey lunch

there it is
brilliant and stark
the pointless destination

a park bench
where on a cold night
the moon was ensnared
in her hair

  <<Muchos años después, frente al pelotón de fusilamiento,
    el coronel Aureliano Buendia habia de recordar aquella 
    tarde remota en que su padre lo llevó a conocer el hielo.>>