Eerie Snow Light

Pale light plays in the pre-dawn,
Lawns frozen into a vast aprons
Stretch to the watershed trees,
Turned into random alabaster
Fishnet stockings draped over
Birch and hackberry hat racks.

Timidly, three deer tiptoe from
This winter dressing room and
Emerge, nosing snowpack for
Corn and pears left by my wife,
Searching for Bartletts, aware
She knows their preferences.

Heads spring up, suddenly on
Alert, as a snapped twig from
A vagrant squirrel creates an
Instant of tense mental chaos;
Then uncertainty succumbs to
Order and hungry acceptance.