Velcro Snow
Paul McLaughlin

--sticky snow starts at midnight
  falls all night
  accumulates into thick parka sleeves on the limbs of our trees
--by dawn, the height and weight and depth of the snow
  has bent our old poplars like Robert Frost's birches
  the fibers along the outside of the curves
  strain and creak and sigh and snap
  and majestic giants bow into permanent stoop
--weak branches and brittle trunks crack
  send rifle reports across the bush
  crack and crash on each other and fall
--the first engine I start this morning is my chain saw

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