Two A.M.
The moon drives ragged clouds
west across the valley
and smoke rising above the chimney
casts shadows
dancing on the snow.
Bears and badgers
salamanders and bats
sleep.
Their dreams echo in the valley.
Freezing mists conspire
where meadow rises into timber.
Voles, deep beneath the snow,
listen to moonlight's bright rhythm
on the frozen crust above them.
In the timber,
dark moonlit shadow
above the white meadow,
coyotes erupt into cacophonous song
blend into harmony
then drop to a brilliant white silence.
Two a.m.
