Tonight
Tonight the air feels painful with cold.
Famish bites badger and vole, land\'s
glassy claws attack foraging meadows
as savage wind gnaws with icy talons.
Tonight each root hugs hidden growth.
Freeze keeps mole and shrew fastened
in hole as shudder grips earth and foal
legs sway under mare\'s frozen hackles.
Tonight no stars glint from ebony sky.
Creatures cower in hunger\'s readiness
as chill clasps feather and fur with icy
fingers and empty mouths stay unfed.
Tonight the field has frost-bitten hands.
Fox-hunt fails in foodless stumble when
iced are burrows while rabbit shambles
in ravenous daze from nourishless den.
Tonight the ether glitters with danger.
Small beings who face trials of winter
will at least find, thru\' autumn\'s grace
warmth in my heaps of dried leaf-litter.