ANTLER
HORIZONTAL ICICLES

Just after waking
Look out my window
At horizontal icicles
on birch branch
Creation of last night
west wind
cold snap
So slow drip
snow melt
Blown parallel to earth
Solidified lengthened thickened
slowly
as I slept
to become
Six six-inch horizontal icicles
Like silver carrots tapering to a point
each point with a frozen drop
at the tip
a few bubbles inside each,
strange, how?
Striations of color
making me wonder
comparison
cross-section tree trunk
to cross-section icicle.
My day goes by
and then it's night
and I lie in bed
Thinking of stalactites and stalagmites
long-lived icicles of minerals
in undiscovered labyrinths
in undiscovered caves
Compared to horizontal icicles
in the full moon.