Niobe

When the snow melted,
It crept away from the sage plant.
Some of its leaves had blackened from frost.

They curled beneath themselves,
Grating their veins
Against jagged teeth of a leaf's edge,
Spines hunched like old women,
Crackling with sobs.

Still, the gray robes' shadows
Must have belied some hidden well,
Because the lines of ice blurred like melting stone.
Amber ran liquid from the eyes of trees,
Stirring a twitch of dragonflies.