Winter Comes
Winter comes with icy hands.
Strip searches trees
Greedy fingers rifle remains,
Leave them naked in the long darkness.
Winter comes with deadly aim.
Single gunshot boom
Rips the silence, echoes menace.
Lays bare the tender heartwood.
Winter comes with shrill lamentations.
Feigns sorrow, howls hollow grief
Through its own devastation.
Freezes grudging tears upon its victims.
Winter comes with fatal beauty.
Whispers songs of frozen warmth
Thin ice traps; snow blind brilliance.
Crimson sunrise streamers cordon off the scene.
Linda Studley 