there was

snow yesterday

an explosion of icing

sugar piled on birds’ beaks

and heads and tails

that sprayed off puffs

in waves and whirligigs

and itty prints

that disappeared

as they departed

like frozen chickens of the woods

rushing up

oaks and birches

in a forest of uncountable swinging whites

gone

were my words swallowed by

whooshing winds

a silence I treasure

unknowing unseeing unhearing

and then the angels

appeared across the lawn

magical portals of love’s

wintry dawning.