Winter Clings

By Katherine Harris Szerdy

Single solitary snowflakes drop 

        pause 

                  slide 

A lovely dance paced against the backdrop of

a Pastel sunset.

A scattering of gentle silent spinners

float playfully like downy milkweed

Flit here, flit there 

     Sassy

          Syncopated

as though they had wings and conscious intent,

Lighting upon the fence post until

A slight breeze resumes their choreography

     Down

         Down

                Down

         to the dried leaf of last year's hosta,

Gliding to the ground like a downy feather of a baby sparrow nesting in the birdhouse I built with Papa last spring and

Nailed to the trunk of the old oak

Whose bark, if you stare at it intently

Resembles an old Iroquois chief winking

As winter clings but springtime claims

Its territory

Its time.

Copyright 2016 by Katherine Harris Szerdy