~identifying the variants

small moments perch

with dignity, like cardinals

their proud bleeding souls

on a half-dead branch

assimilating the cold

poised in their own particular

grief 

snowlight pierces

a pinhole in this curtain

exposes the backside

of winter

          a crack in february's wall 

a small stream of light

squints

collects in the corner

with weighted words 

a blinding blur between

grieving language

          and the poetics of birds

this darkness knows nothing

of the sun

its laboring simile of

rebirth

the soft curve

of a shadow's presence

lah  2.3.17 ©®