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Snow White

You walk uphill,
check for ice
under rubber

oles—the black
kind, you're told, appears
suddenly. The children

laugh into orange
gloves, a girl touches
your coat-arm, asks, ‘Where

do you live?’ The crow
calls hah! hah!, flies
to the tip

of a power pole. Beside
a Buddhist cemetery snow-
dusted trees

stand like friends
in a carpark.
You crunch by

the path, fumble
in the coat, locate
the heart, get down

on your hands & knees
& push it deep
into the roadside snow.