Winter Fog

Slow barge moving up river in a thick blanket of fog. Deck lights blazing against the ice and the mist. New Jersey looks like it's a hundred years in the past. Ice floes lining up mid-river like a second shore. I wonder if someone is watching, turning an eye through the fog back towards me. Birds fly against a bank of white. I wonder where they'll possibly find to land. An inch of ice tops even the highest branches.