Winter

The day as briskly crisp
as a newly-picked apple,
an icy cold prevailed
on the winter arras of a
broad shoreline with leaf-bare
trees sending dark branches
appealing to the blue ceiling
void of clouds, the sun
burning a fiery river across
the glassy surface of a
frozen lake, wind howling
winter's inclement message.
At the narrows rapids
not yet set in seasonal ice
water yet foams in white foment.
There, upon the rocks
gulls have gathered, settled,
their shrill shrieks shattering
the fragile, brittle air.