The Winter Mages
it's been a late summer,
but today the flame robins
are on the wire
flit flit
and still
and flitter past a post or two
to a new perch
just like the last
silent heralds
of our winter,
they don't believe
the earth is warming
and have come down early
from the mountains
flit
and still
as they dance
they splash the wintercolours,
black and snow
and a flash of scarlet
much as I love
a soft sun on my shoulders,
lazy zephyr,
growing green,
the agèd rhythm of spade, earth
and vegetable harvest
my heart like a migrating bird
has set its face
for the first snowflakes
and the clean wind