When clouds, full-bellied, ride in sullen skies
and wind-lashed trees shed withered leaves like tears,
shrouded in winter’s silence the earth defies
the season’s onslaught — bridging the passing years.
Surviving wind and storm, the evergreen
thrusts needle fingers through the grizzled ground,
leaving its monogram on the chaste white scene.
Snow muffles the wind, the reveille of sound.
Mary Engleberg