Solstice

It is cold and soon colder
and the remaining fragments of leaves,
browned and curled and tessellated,
are gathered close on the storm drains
with their fish and their warnings,
all covering all,
and before a tiny flood
and a slow and oily reservoir,
nothing will flow.

It is cold and soon colder,
with the smell of snow near to fall
evenly on the street and we are waiting
for these silent and more separated waters
to gather,
on street and leaves and fish and warnings,
all covering all,
and before the later spring
or sudden warmth or plow,
nothing will flow.