The Big Thaw We hadn t realized There was so much snow Until the water came The roads over-ran their banks Sidewalks were streams & we were on high ground The center of a bridge The span of which Suspended us a hundred solitary feet Above the pools on the ice Of the river clear as tears above the opaque milky bottom Where frogs sleep in silt Where oysters like tongues Lie in their frozen beds Where worms too are still & algae slows its industrious growth Where every molecule of water Slips by its frozen brother Fl x BL DE Lit