The Night of Winter..............

Daylight; softly falling
Like silvery echoes
Of children calling
From frozen meadows
In a muffled past
We trace the winding footprints
Through the long, blue shadows cast
As the moan of twilight glints
Against the moody flare
Of naked arms stretched darkly
Rigid, the wooded limb and bare
Its silhouette, sketched starkly
‘Gainst an inky canvas where
The sliver of a moon reclines
On the intricate fringes
Of the raven pines
And their whisper tinges
The bare walls of the sky
In an icy splinter
The tear becoming a sigh
For the night of winter
Is a drawn-out lullaby

Janet~