Winter's Wings

Shadows in the snow bend across an icy purity that veils the frozen ground. Black wings beat overhead to cut the bitter gray air and eclipse the thaw of the mid-day sun. The patches of darkness scurry across each sparkling drift with every stroke of shiny outstretched feather. They reminisce with broken corn stalks, to chill in jealousy the remnants of a better season. They stretch unto a lifeless tree, and coil about its hard bleached trunk, to reach upward and darken limbs, so much like leaves once did. And there cold talons grasp this cobalt twin, and drape it towards the ground, to wait silent and still in the endless wind.