Message on the Winter Air
Long shadows on blue snow
Warm sun stepping around trees
Life’s mysterious light and dark.
Trees standing tall
Uncovered faces in the wind
Snow collecting in the cleft of boughs
Sap deeply stored
Feetless birds, round as tennis balls
Perched facing the warming sun
Random song
Reassuring their own kind
Reaching limb to limb,
Barren bark remembers melting snow
Turns to buds in spring.
Stand tall, reserve sap
Accept visitors
Wrap the bird song like a scarf.
