Trees in Winter

Elegant limbs --

Petals, falling, gazed upon my soul.

Dreary late December’s

Cold stokes the heat

Of firewood.

Fallen flowers framed in fetid

Standing fountain water. 

The nymphs, adorned

With wilted cherry blossoms,

Are departed. 

Their tracks,

Like dogwood kisses 

Swept away by the wind,

Are somber

And dry.