Night and Day

Dusk knows its time and place and when
to defer to the darkness of nightfall
withdrawing while lending itself to the
atmospheric descent into hushed silence.
A silence shattered ever so rudely by a
hoarse clatter of crows despite the hour
and the expectation that only nocturnal
creatures prowl lending credence to the
supposition that an owl has enraged those
birds who had embraced sleep perhaps by
foraging too near their resting place
arousing their territorial umbrage as much
as their fear of the great owl's talons in
too close contact with their vulnerability.
This day the searing heat of the summer
sun baked the forest as fierce burning
rays of that orb sat high above the canopy
and burst through interstices among the
branches of pines and oaks in a mixed
forest of conifers and deciduous trees
descending into a vast ravine where 
wildflowers were shriveling in protest
and small animals sought comfort in hidden
nests waiting for the furnace to abate
and the day to slip into the cool escape
of night when rolling thunderstorms 
might justify their arcane trust in nature.