Settling In

Cold, damp and ghastly grey,
the fog has made itself
comfortable for two days of
utter opacity settling over farms
and forests, towns, villages and
the city where night-time lights
pierce the noon-day's unsettling
gloom. Vehicles pass silently on
darkly-glazed highways whose
grassy medians begin to welcome
the frigid atmosphere transitioning
to sleet and snow, casting a brief
illuminating effect as light
standards bounce briefly bright
off the freshly flickering flakes.
Tiny stars briefly flaring then
dying an extinguished life in
this dank local micro-universe.
The burnt-charcoal clouds billowing
above and beyond admitting to no
escape when nature suddenly urges
an upper gale to nudge them aside
and the sun appears, a wan disk
searching release to scorch the fog
rising from the river beyond into
reluctant exile. And for one short
miraculous moment that splendid 
orb of gold gains traction and beams
its glory as darkness flees and a
flaming path of light paves its way
across the river. Gone as swiftly
as it appeared, the fog ferociously
returns to once again dominate
the winter-in-motion arras.