Knockout
The bitmap blizzard begins
in low resolution,
transfers a vignetted tint
to every tree branch,
just a fuzz,
like a print in poor registration.
But the halftone thickens
in the raster tempest,
three hundred flakes per inch
as flurries offset
from cloud to wind to prairie,
rolling against the grain
in a high-speed run,
a thousand impressions a minute,
work and turn
across ridges and swales,
blanching the bluestem and switchgrass.
At the window loupe,
pixels stick to the glass,
no two the same;
frosty forbs bloom and bleed,
dot gain finally masking the view.
The days feed through
a sheet at a time,
inked with snowdrifts,
white of the highest brightness,
mere ghosts passing
between pages,
trapped under the varnish
of winter.
Copyright © 2008 Jenn Hollmeyer. All rights reserved.