The willows are huddled together under the snow.
Ice hangs like crystal fairy lights strung together
Beneath its barren branches.
For a moment, sunbeams merge into one
With the ripples of ice that bend the branches.
They slip off into the dark chambers
Of the snow crested crown.
The grasses are frozen stiff and softly crunches under the footfalls
Of the wild things that come beneath
To hide in the gentle cave till it is so warm
The blanket falls down and covers their coats.
And bids them a good night if they stay till morning.
The wings of the winter birds
Are fallen upon the bending necks of the thickened strands where the leaves were lost to the earth below.
And within their new abode they burry themselves into a hole and stave off the bitting winds that change the face of the lands they have seen from above.
The fishes hide beneath the thickened waters that hold time in place with all the creeping mosses and blackened flora of the streams around their heads like a wild abandoned and displaced world from the beyond.
And in all this where do I stand, where do I sit, where can I walk?
In all this what am I if I am alone?
If I don't have you to hold me awake
Why does the day come here?
And if I don't have you to hold me asleep
What do the nights visit this place
Wherein I exist?
