The Division of White
by Diane Beaty
“A debate not of the words themselves,
but our interpretation of
the words.
Think of the many kinds of
white, of the fifteen or so
names for snow.
Pure white Alaska.
A wind comes down from
the north with it’s all-white
shiver. A river of snow.
An embankment of salmon,
Flesh-pink, climbing
the falls. The intricate labor
of some undoing.
The true name. The purposed
focus that eludes us
all in the black of night.
White light seen
from a window. The jumble
of white beyond death,
beyond doing. Here is a candle.
Here, in this fresh
snow, is a white-waxed blue
flame carving your name.”
Diane Beaty
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