Snowflakes

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"Defense Secretary Rumsfeld's frequent little white memos are referred to as snowflakes.'"
     National Public Radio

Piled up, they eat holes
into leather boots.

Snowballs
that tick.

The pipe stuck
in the snowman's mouth
swivels like a gun in a turret.

The snowflakes inside
little glass globes
go on strike.

Countless snowflakes
and each of them
the same as all the others.

To catch one on one's tongue
and taste it—
the new bravery.

The snow shovel
turns molten
under the load.

The children want to stay out
in the snowfall, but the parents
pull them inside.