Into the Woods

An autumn wind tosses leaves like a stripper
dropping scarves, playing to front-row patrons.

Many birds have returned to their winter trade,
ornamenting alabaster branches of naked trees.

A gunshot snap of winter-weakened branches
breaking in the first heavy snow of the new year.

Startled deer leap like rabbits, bounding for holes
in the margin between snowpack and deep forest.

Imagination and memory follow them, like children
chasing dreams, ignorant of both cold and caution.