John, interesting shot. Since the body of water could be almost anything, I'm going with your intent of a metaphor, based on the shape of the tree/branches/trunk.
Or the Finger Lakes region of NY...regardless, quite a nice shot.
Not sure it works for me, it just feel there should be more of the scene?
Like it, John...I am just confused about the darkness of the trees but delight in that bare branch (?) because that has a lot of tone in it...would it help if you brighten up the background a tad? I do not know B/W much so I really cannot help here at all...did you shoot this using the monochrome function of your camera? Just curious because I still have to use mine...