EBONY CHILL.
Tonight the air feels bitter with cold.
Hunger bites badger and vole as wind\'s
teeth of glass gnaw at their bones for
grasses now own savage-stiff talons.
Tonight seed and root hug hidden growth.
Thick snow keeps mole and mouse holed
and while shudder grips earth blackbird\'s
thin shiver shakes snow from branches.
Tonight no stars peep from domed sky.
Creatures cower in agonized wait while
ebony chill clasps young feather and fur
in cold\'s freezing ache of staying unfed.
Tonight the ground cracks in frosty clasp.
Fox-hunt fails in flattened stumble after
live cub-food while hedgehog shambles
famished and dazed from starvation-cell.
Tonight the ether glitters with danger.
Autumn-leaf litter has warm salvation
to beings who face sore trials of winter
for in heaping dried piles we offer help.
.