A blackbird sings plangent as the sun rises and day breaks pinky-orange.
Yesterday it was after nine before light penetrated the subfusc of morning
Frost forms lacy patterns on trampled ferns, pinnae fronds beneath my feet.
Today, they will outlast daylight, unmoved by watery rays from far away.
Resident robin greets, where days before I had planted, gifting him lunch.
He’ll make do with scattered seeds, new life can’t pierce winter’s solid earth.
Peter Kay