December 21st, 2012

Winter Solstice Sky
(2012)

 The moody skies of December have been arresting
Silent symphonies of water vapor and ice crystals aloft

Constantly aligning and realigning in changing patterns and shapes
Fluffy to threadbare, ragged, rich, undulating, sculpted

Colors from bone to slate, almost red, to the very meaning of gray
A sunset streaked with bright peach so intense I check for flames

A morning dance of swirling mists slowly revealing winter blue
Bisected by a lone eagle on patrol

Why can’t it just stay like this?
But it never does

Then the gray starts, thin at first, a flat light
That grows dimmer

Until there is a solid deck of one single shade that bogs you down
At some point to be replaced by the drama of continental systems

Apocalyptic dark clouds, so many shades of gray
Scudding and flowing and building while you watch

It is so dark for mid afternoon
Then a little light in the west rents the curtain

Will the rains return, or could it, would it snow
Or, will it all just blow away?

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year