there is something about clean sheets / of snow that instills a remarkable loneliness / much like the kind the hiker feels / when they reach the summit & find / nothing / except themselves and the world / this feeling has also been called holy / this is what the snow gives / the crunch under foot / the second coming of wind / the misting of breath / what is it if not intimate / what is it if not the Lord beckoning / a field of no footprints and suddenly / no one has ever been here before / suddenly everything is divine / suddenly it becomes hard to remember all the dead / lying / just beneath the white