The Snowbound Woods

The silvered clouds that loosed a
hurricane of snow the day before
have vacated the sky, leaving that
heavenly venue a blue ocean where
the sun floats calmly with no challenges
to its primal presence, warming the
atmosphere and steadily melting the
frozen crystals comforting the frozen
landscape below. The forest canopy
rises stark and dark into the light
blue of the sky. Below, on boughs
of spruce, fir and pine snow yet
lingers, reluctant to surrender to the
warming fingers of sunfire seeping
through the leafless tree spires. But
the steady drip of snowmelt adds
its audible texture to the silence of
the snowbound woods as the sun's
relentless dominion dominates
the atmosphere and the nature of
environmental succession, bit by bit.