"Snow sonnet": a poem for February

"Snow sonnet"
(Mark Bromberg)

The dogs don't see the beauty of the snow
as it falls at midnight, or its whiteness so stark.
We stand in awe at the new-frosted window
watching the barn as it disappears in the dark.
The stillness that descends on us
mounts hourly in drifts
deep as the year that's about to end upon us.
We go on to bed. Overnight, the world shifts

on an axis swung from pole to pole,
from dark to light, as we go on dreaming.
A southern snowfall uncovers the soul:
the garden rake, left out and leaning
on the shed, has a cardinal on it.
He is as red as my heart with new-fallen snow upon it.

Statham, GA
December 27 2010