Wind, Horse, Snow

1.
The Eskimo children balance their blackboards
on their knees and write with soft fat chalk.
A storm skitters across the frozen sea.
Smidgens of ice have swirled into pinwheels.

2.
The painter Magritte is dabbing black paint
on his canvas. Beneath the clock he writes
'wind,' beneath the door 'horse.'
3.

The Eskimo children have a new teacher,
from Connecticut, who wants them to learn
a poem about stopping by the woods
on a snowy evening with an intelligent horse.

4.
It is summer in the ragweed field.
Magritte says there is no picture without a frame.
When he stares from his attic window, does he see
the field, or a composition of the field?
Is it possible for me to love you
without inventing you?

5.
The Eskimo children admire the horse most.

6.
The children must pick a word to describe
the snow that batters their windows.
If it is too wet, their fathers might freeze
as they paddle home. If it is dry and powdery,
the dogs can make the run to town for food.

7.
"The word dog does not bite,"
observed William James,
who admired Magritte's horse.

8.
If my language has no future tense,
am I the same person I was as a child?