old reprint

How To Survive Winter

The thing about long

vigils is Systems Redundancy, an

economic phrase on loan from

civil engineering. Most but not all

observations made

through artfully hung

windows framing fixed objects

cunningly arranged.  Take two

carved pumpkins placed

just so among bare lilacs

last November.  Drinking coffee at dawn

at the kitchen table, leaning

slightly to the left,

I mark their daily progress toward

soft shell abstraction. 

With only a minor adjustment of perspective

an angle opens on a cold

shoulder of snow concealed

from the sun alongside the shed, winter

giving me the business. 

The feeders, visible from the back

room windows draw

the usual rag tag flock

making observations

of their own, shocked

by the relentless decline

on view inside.  At some point I'll pull

on my boots and plant myself

on the patio, dog

at my side, silent as we watch

shadows on the white rump

of the yard

take ever smaller

bites.