1995
Winter Crumbled
August 1995


“Winter Crumbled,” New Era, Aug. 1995, 24

Winter Crumbled

A slouching rail fence smothers

in winter-sown snow.

It won’t stop the prickly patches of grass

creeping in like a wave of green fire

as winter softly decays.

Rasping winds don’t stop

the sagging orchards.

They become forever young once again

with a pastel of fruits

as winter’s crystalled veil is lifted.

The surf’s song will

begin in the building

of amber streams and freckled water

as winter is silently scooped

from the earth.

Darkness like a shadowed vulture

can’t cloak a lamenting sun.

She will finally come from mourning to wake

from his azure slumber, the moon.

She shall pin the sky with a star

as winter is doomed to die.

All the impassable lands and the icy sky

now swim in amethyst.

Through the pulsing silence and lurking lights

you might hear

the edge of winter crumble.