winter rain
unsheathing

winter rain
brown ground emerges
from its snowy scabbard

goldfish rise drowsy
to the rippling surface
of their small pond
drift back down

puddles and dirty runnels
soak the flower beds
a woodpecker searches
under the shingles

the city sends its workers 
out in white trucks
to cut back and collect
ice broken branches

mud on the fenders
mud on the hubcaps
mud on the winter boots
mud on the carpet

life is busy in the underground
it reaches up, it reaches down
it makes its little tunnels
it takes what is left over
it takes what is spit out
what is buried and denied
it takes it all, it drinks the rain

feed it ashes and snow
shit and shriveled rinds
gristle and coffee grinds
feed it blood and bone, your own
seed, your own cut nails
it takes it all, it drinks it down

crows celebrate in the bare trees
sparrows fly to the river by hundreds
the snow geese will come, they will
come back to the river, to the marshes
winter rain, winter rain, winter rain