Fractal Arms

The clock-lady waves a gilded hand:
“Time? Oh, my dear,
there’s plenty of that. It’s not as if
you’re drowning, or on fire.”

Scissoring minutes away like snowflakes
each one unique and irreplaceable
and melting. Under magnification,
a liquid universe.

In a drop of water, leviathans swim
frost giants play among the fractal arms
of a snowflake or a galaxy
and in a single slice of time
suns are born and die.


--from Cafe Writing: drown, gilded, hands, snow, time, magnify