A Table Outside

Slintered shards of varnish
on the table where the snow once lay
catching light unreflected
in the dull spot they pooled,
where the melt sat, debris
pieced out of the wet thaw,
a gleaming record of city lights
baked into timber come morning,
its lightness exposed to wind
until the rain, and a dampening,
until spring, and a refinishing.