Lacy Fronds, Plumes,Tendrils, Crystal Forests

Tendrils of frost on a car windshield

Frost
by Valerie Worth, from All the Small Poems and Fourteen More

How does
The plain
Transparency
Of water

Sprout these
Lacy fronds
And plumes
And tendrils?

And where
Before window-
Panes, did
They root

Their lush
Crystal forests,
Their cold
Silver jungles?

Frosty windows

Frosty January morning