In the Bleak Midwinter

rime crusted snow
printed with track of fox and rabbit
a race to the burrow
where the vixen fell short
of feeding her hungry kits
and the swift hare lives to dance again

ice embossed tridents of bird track
gray dove feathers
spots of crimson blood
where the snowy owl found his target
and lives to hunt once more

runes of bone cast in the starlight
iridescent scales gleam
where the cold flesh of fish was devoured
and the silken mink lives to swim again

silently, the stars appear
where Orion hunts his nightly prey
life and death in the winter meadow
under the solstice moon

*** On our short hikes in this beautiful snow, we find tracks of all our fellow inhabitants that move mostly unseen – fox, deer, coyote, rabbit – and sometimes we run across evidence of the hunt.
All a part of the course of our seasons – K