March Twelfth Freeze

rondine

Freeze 12 March 2026 Montreal — photo by the poet

false spring gives way to dripping ice
encasing limbs to sag and break,
falling on powerlines that shake,
shiver, quiver, once, twice,
before they, too, pay the price
winter once more reaches out to take:
false spring gives way.

not new, not nuanced, nowhere near nice,
the bending branches strain and quake
along the shave-ice shore of the lake
where people skitter like nervous mice—
false spring gives way.

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