What is reality? An icicle forming in fire.
Just when normal life felt almost possible - when the world held some kind of order, meaning, even loveliness (the prismatic spray of light through an icicle; the stillness of a sunrise), some small thing would go awry and veil of optimism was torn away, the barren world revealed. They learned, somehow, to wait those times out. There was no cure, no answer, no reparation. (161)
The moon of Rome, chaste as the icicle that's curded by the frost from purest snow.
How to Commit the Perfect Murder" was an old game in heaven. I always chose the icicle: the weapon melts away.
Music comes from an icicle as it melts, to live again as spring water.