Legend

The spirits of winter haunting have let loose

themselves today in the winds that blow

and swirl among the trees, driving the snows

before them, these ethereal shells

of weary travels calling out, shrieking, lost once

in a storm such as this, ill-prepared and found

hunched and frozen or denuded in the spring thaw,

stripped bare to bone. These same spirits return

again now to take up their winter journeys,

howling through the trees and the snow,

their tears falling hard and icy, homeward bound

to the warm fires and family they left behind,

a comfort at the end of their days denied them.