WINTER Options

[Guest_Dan Culleton_*]

Winter


Upon this settled grove, this row of trees,
The light bright of the morning shows
To each here present now unquestionably
The fellow presence of each shivering bough.

Upon this settled evening too,
Winter devises cruel clarity of sight.
False Spring this week had, demonic, doomed,
Scattered stark children among the starlings.

Shadow of child and bird soared
Until night froze them in a dream.
Always the year returns us without fail
To this ancient darkness and this cold:

Bare branches across a dark, cold sky,
Each branch hung with its own distant stars.