open water, patches
of sleet chunks, rolling skin,
long stretches of ice sheets
deluding us that underneath
lies still — exoskeleton

of gray, silver, blue, black
rising and falling while breath
moves under and through,
amniosis seeping, small curls
along the shoreline

where warmth? hidden dark
into the churning below,
gestating secrets birthed
slowly with unknown pain
nameless, of unknown nativity