Winter Dreams

A pallid sun dips
down to the horizon,
leaving a wash of
mauve and pale pink. 

Frigid air hardens the ice
skim on the river,
where a lone arctic duck
skitters and slides. 

A swan pair sleeps on ice,
their bright white 
contrasting with the 
nearby live black water.

At a cove, waterfowl
are all asleep on this
bitter day, lying flat
on dark pavement, or
standing on one leg,
heads tucked under wings. 

A great blue heron arrives
at the near bank,
hunkers down
against the cold.

A rare pileated woodpecker,
with his bright red crest
atop stark black and white
coloration, flits from trunk 
to branch, 
drilling for insects. 

Tiny dark-eyed juncos 
have arrived for the winter,
deep gray on wings and back,
with a creamy breast,

they take two hops forward,
one step back,
in a dance to clear snow,
uncover wild seeds.

Just as dusk meets dark,
a great horned owl
swoops down from a tall tree
on wide, silent wings,
followed by its mate.  

Behind the dark branches
of a leafless tree,
a sliver of a crescent moon
appears,

a new beginning after
the glowing supermoon
has dazzled and departed. 

A dusting of snowflakes 
becomes a snowstorm,
our first, coating shrubs,

leaving a tracery of white
on bare, black branches,
and animal tracks
in the city snow.