A hawk tears into a mouse carcass

woodpecker taps

echo in hollows shorn of

leaves wind spews scents of

ash and pine over matted

foliage light’s umbra spreads across the land stillness screams like a swirl

of fog pierced by iridescent beams…

fragmented forest noises…shrieking…



…shrilling…an osprey dives onto the lake

snatches a perch…concentric circles ripple

to the shore…dragonflies hover over the

water waves lick the sands

where fish corpses swarm with flies

wilted leaves rustle

like grating metal splintering

silence…a doe prances into pine

fields air slaps moist and tangy

and chilled clouds billow



charcoal gray. A hedge apple devoured

by ants its seeds spilling onto the ground

a moccasin slinks through

thatch… forest shades sepia as

mallards arch across lake

its surface pinged by sprays

of snow horizon bleeding lavender

as the sun perforates a cloud’s crest

wind swirls snow onto

trails winding into a glen

glazing the ground leaving only

sprigs of foliage puncturing

crust for squirrels and gophers to

forage. Cackles…wing flutters… snow

crunches…a sunset’s

shattering

spectrum…