With Pebble Freckles

These squirrels and blue jays

Can't access the bird feeder--

They're too big (and fail).

White the snow blanket;

Black and white the chickadees.

Color disappears.

Filled with emptiness

Dry forsythia husk waits

For yellow returns.

Bearded blind old man

Lies sleeping in a boulder.

Shhh! Hear him snoring.

Beyond the leaning fence

The tiny stream still trickles

In the bitter cold.

Swift cars have splattered

Pure white snow on the tree trunk

With pebble freckles.

Against the barn wall

Ghost's head like a marble bust

Becomes immobile.

The road is empty;

Only my footsteps echo

In the hollow air.