Snowstruck

Sometimes it falls fast
Gravity sucks it into immediate accumulation
It is perpendicular to everywhere you're supposed to be
A strobing curtain over necessities
You see them only in prettified flashes

But when it falls slowly
Skimming the seamless levels of wet air
It traces a path to the inevitable ground
Just so.

I can look up to it
From the cozy, cold bed of its ancestors
Wondering if this flake
This perfect Chosen One
From the farthest reaches of my assisted eyesight
Will be lucky and light
Unacquired by the clumps
Who would commandeer its particular pattern

Will make its way to the fine fuzz of my cheek
Hover
Through my longest inhale of winter
Warming itself in the bedazzlement of my smile.