Winnetka Winter

an icicle frieze on the breakwater
veils russet steel jutting from shore
through a sea of broken glass

ice tesserae crackle like stones
poured over a resonant go board
as incoming breakers submerge
swelling the scintillant surface
scattering cascades of sparks
like a midday meteor shower
nearer and yet as distant
as the fallen idylls of childhood

the cold light diffracts this reflection
into crystalline fragments of memory
and shattered might have beens