Enticing Landscapes

In the silent woods a golden
light falling from the sun
blazing in an ocean-blue sky
scatters a rainbow of refracted
colour from snow lofting the
forest floor. This is the peaceable
kingdom of hawks and nuthatches,
chickadees and woodpeckers
who flicker through the festive
green boughs of evergreens
sparkling back ice-stars at
the sky. In the snow-muffed
silence no human presence appears.
In the mall, fake blood-red spruces
sparkling with white lights blaze
back at the bright overhead lighting
as festive holiday ornaments
festoon the marble-floored spaces
thick with shoppers, motivated
by the season, the music and
alluring signage to !save! on gifts
by buying trinkets !on sale! as a
mass hysteria of social custom
overwhelms vacant-eyed people
struggling for quality of life.