The snow layered thin upon the rooftops,
lining the neighborhood with rows and rows of bleached skulls.

People crawled forth from toothless mouths,
baring their tongues to a leaking ceiling,
their heads covered like hidden fists.

Clenched in each was the fading ink of bottles
trapped in the carcasses of beached whales
who finally met that distant shore
and did not turn away.