How many snow flakes fall on this house

with the red roof. A deer comes to graze—

washed in umber, white-tailed, it nuzzles

drift-fixed wands of blackberry, pulls stems

frothed with inch-thick hoarfrost. Icicles bloom

from failing gutters. If you peer close

a woman wanders from room to room,

glaze-eyed, looking for her lost romance.

Fixed diagnoses: hallux rigidus,

spinal stenosis, sifted by a demiurge.

Listen as she washes miniscule dishes,

china small as atoms. After the urge

to leave home wrests loose of the glass

she sits down alone to watch Christmas.