The Pure Weight of Snow

The Pure Weight of Snow

Jacob Luis Gonzales

Softly resting on the branch

is the snow of winter

painting the landscape

glimmering, shining, reflecting light

The weight slowly presses

and the beautiful snow hurts

the branches can’t press back

so they bend, painfully and dramatically

The purity shines and blinds all

those who look at its reflection

yet the sting is desired and pursued

because the light is alluring

The covering of snow allows

little, bare, and dark shapes behind

with no care for its resting place

and its place cracks with no restraint

The gravity pulls so steadily

and no one can push back enough

no one can stop its pressure

with no way of reaching to give rest

Heavily the snow sits and lays still

with no mending options to make and create

yet we all watch the pure and heavy covering

while the branch cracks, snaps, and is destroyed.