February 2020 - II

Winter's in its final days
The sun has made its promised return
Headed north
soon past the equator

Daylight now past 6pm
Not long now till the equinox
Snow will come
and more high winds

The grass is brown
rustling horizontal
in the unceasing
gales of the northwest

Hailstones dance
in a fandango with the wind
but crows are nesting
and lambs will soon be here

As the days open out
the machair is empty
the roads derelict
the beaches waveswept

The Window on the West
is framing the setting sun
in a house now empty
of your voice but by memory

She who knows all
is awaiting patiently
in her forever home
for your promised return

February 2020

The wind blows hard
waves thunder ashore
snow patters
wet against the windows

Light is returning
from solstician gloom
but winter fights hard
to retain its icy grasp

The Window on the West
remains empty
She who knows all
patiently waits

The house on the shore
time bends you down
struggling on valiantly
where age ravages

Day drags by day
on the sloped street
where the circle decreases
as it goes round in time

I cannot retrieve
what has long since
been lost
hard though I try

The wind blows hard
the sheets of icy rain
lash the cobbled road
along which I stumble on