Ice breaker

The brown-black image
hangs against the wall, askance.
Monochrome freezes
the winter park.

The water iced, trees paper-laced,
the shrubs white sugar chunks.

A capped and uniformed figure
punctuates, leaning on his polar ice-breaker,
freeing water patches
for a few small ducks.
Keeping the park.
As they did, those years ago.

Caught on camera,
framed on my wall.
A chemical reaction, an imprint:
on photographic paper,
on all the years of my memory,
or on every passing eye and mind.

Images, keepers of dreams,
for ever breaking the ice.