The Surgeon

 

Winter is a subtle surgeon.

 

Debriding branches
bare to the bone
testing the timbre of trees.

 

Anesthetic winds
Sterile ice
Scalpel of snow
uncover their mettle...

 

Paths empty
Sojourners seek shelter.
Season's solitude required.

 

Without knowledge of winter,
             Spring would merely add colour
                              instead of life.

 

Subtle, painful
Winter heals.

 

29 December 2003
jh