Reading on my Back Deck One Balmy Winter Day

I was interrupted by a sunset
of the understated kind –
ragged layers of gray overlain
by islands of off-white sky.

I don’t remember when,
but the wind had died. Not
a breath disturbed the bare tips
and twisted limbs of winter trees

while underneath, the whole
world shone. Nothing you
could capture by camera,
nothing to inspire a song.

A gentle river washed
the world with white noise,
a still spell soon cracked
by the call of a Carolina wren.

Listen, we live only moments,
and notice so few. Will you
close the book? Would you
shut down the screen? Look,

night sweeps from the east
beyond the speed of sound.
Gray deepens a shade. Dull
lace of red maple darkens.

The cream sky turns coral.
Shadows merge. Somehow
creation holds together. Even
in darkness the world glows.

Photo by Don Hunter