stepping light

in the bleak cold window of winter
the iced over glass bristles
in veins of vessels

the snowball strikes carpet,
flakes gleaming from the boy’s
blue mitten, quick to cover

mouth to clench and sprint,
ice veins snap and drain,
snowball seeps in gnarls

of stiffening rug.
in the brisk
she picks up the glass, ice

specks that shimmer and drop
wetting, an infiltration, no
a drip that plunks deep

in eardrum, the snowball
plucked and thrown back
as the chill

down her fingers, slides,
over the back handed
crook of wrist.