“Black Snow”

falling in Austria and the Himalayas,

deliquescing into the dirt of Russia,

unloading its burden of soot and dust

from the coal plants, the coalfields and pits

of Prokopyevsk, Kiselevsk, Leninsk-Kuznetski,

their soldiers deliquescing into the local cemetery,

returned from Afghanistan, Chechnya, Ukraine— black

snow , the words sound so pretty, like black apples

from Arkansas, or the Black Diamond apple of Tibet,

stained purple by sunlight, expensive and rare,

or black ice, which is treacherous, near-invisible—

words like glory and country , Motherland ,

Fatherland , what do they mean, does it depend, what

do they depend on, what tree or cross or bridge hang from

while black snow falls on Greenland, its glaciers

deliquescing, another word I love, though not

what it m