LANDSCAPE WITH WINTER AND NOSEBLEED

I see it already the frost
coming toward me from

the woods in the woods
the trees bend over the river like

parasols like nurses there are
silver needles in the robins’

nests wild violets floating
in the air
I’ll breathe the frost

then nosebleed into my
lap my blood will pool feeling

heavy as a skull my blood
is the color of a yellow

eye even God forgets God he
sucks a ruby to remind

him who he is I am comfortable
with decay as we all must

be here where glass shatters
back into sand
for every river

there are things that drown
the river is full

of plastic shovels and possum
hearts each tiny as

a grape a blackbird watches
ice float down the river

in his beak is a spider fitfully
waving I am still breathing

still buttered and nutrient-
rich there is a cane tapping

a path through the snow
there are no fireflies for miles

Kaveh Akbar founded and edits Divedapper. His poems appear recently or soon in American Poetry Review, Tin House, Boston Review, FIELD, PBS NewsHour, and elsewhere.