February

	The snow stretches out along the limb like a great cat that has made its 
kill and can afford the luxury of temporary mildness.  Below, the old boards that 
were once a bird feeder have taken on a cap and mask of snow to become a 
smiling gnome, playing his mime before a rapt but silent audience of white upon 
the ground.  In the box seats of red pine branches the rich and upper classes 
can afford to be nonchalant about the show.  Unconcerned, except to show 
themselves, they sometimes slip from box to floor in a glittering display, politely 
silent.  In another world, a bird mocks from the ceiling posts and a squirrel leaps 
and chatters across the lion's mouth.  February.

February 19, 1979
February 2, 1998