Winter Backyard

The Bull snake, in the hole beneath 
the junipers's feet, thinks of the lady who
gestured to him on a spring day,
to go down the slope before her;
he moved aside, startled, to let her go 
down the slope; she insisted he go first;
oh, such a civility of her;
would it live even in the winter?

The rabbites empty burrow under
the porch, after the neighbor's dog
chased them away to the bog;

the Russian olive tree that spies the neighbor,
with a bough hanging over the fence;

now, they all watch the snowflakes in silence;
how harmonious they look in a glance. 

© Byung A. Fallgren