The ice crystal
at 32 degrees Fahrenheit
is long and needle-like –

or so you tell me
with your scientific insight –
while at 5 degrees

it is flat as a plate.
Snowflake arms as they fall
through air drop off,

go in different directions,
but are held,
in spite of this, in continuing

symmetry. So here, now,
falling by day, by night
there are millions of symmetries.

While here, now, we cannot
sustain even one:
shrink our arms and legs

not to touch; detach,
come apart. White bed,
white snow. All that effortful

attempt at pattern,
now our long
slow falling.