SNOWMEN chemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />>>

My ancestor, a man
of Himalayan snow,
came to chemas-microsoft-com:officemarttags" />lace>Kashmirlace> from lace>Samarkandlace>,
carrying a bag
of whale bones:
heirlooms from sea funerals.
His skeleton
carved from glaciers, his breath
arctic,
he froze women in his embrace.
His wife thawed into stony water,
her old age a clear
evaporation. >>

This heirloom,
his skeleton under my skin, passed
from son to grandson,
generations of snowmen on my back.
They tap every year on my window,
their voices hushed to ice. >>

No, they won't let me out of winter,
and I've promised myself,
even if I'm the last snowman,
that I'll ride into spring
on their melting shoulders. >>

--Agha Shahid Ali, from The Half-Inch lace>Himalayaslace> >>