You can feel it coming, can’t you

the door you can’t get by

or worse, the open door, or opening

without a door, only a threshold

your foot treks to

base camp

only to get snowed out

before it can dream of ascending

The snow that parades the vein

trumpets your withering

defies the death this is supposed to be

    genetically engineered

    a comedy or insurance fraud

    small talk between atoms at a cocktail party

Once the vein stills and there’s only rumor

whether it snows here

or not, you now understand

how hot snow is, yet never melts

They say do not lose language

Once you lose language, you’re in a room

where it snows all day long

and at night you burn off memories

    knitted booties

    for an unborn child

    the moon reflected in an old dog’s eye

    that guinea pig you got to bring home

    from school one day

How many ways can we say goodbye

as many as the shapes of snowflakes

or more

You think you’ve succeeded in a last message

Have a party when I’m gone

Hang my veins for streamers

eat my liver for cake

    nonsense of a life