Thaw

When the snow melts, the trees
Seem to be full of life,

With dips here, a bow there,
A jig as a large branch

Sheds a heap like a coat
Shrugged off by a tall child.

Their shifts catch at the eyes
With hints of beasts in shade,

Large beasts, elk, deer at least,
Not just the small grey birds.

Your brain still thinks of prey
Or like prey, though those two

Ways of life have not been yours
Much of late. You feel tricked

When you twitch your head just
Since a tree twitched. Gone soon,

Spring snow like this. The sun
Burns at all points, all ways,

Which would be fair, you think,
If the sun cared. There. More

Slides off and your head turns.
You will not, now or next

Year, know what to say life
Is, what has life, if sun

Or all of earth, or just
Trees and beasts might have it.