Icicles drip from frosty evergreens
Furnace heat makes misty gables
Water falls in frozen ruts
Long ice fingers hang.


Families stoke unused fireplaces,
Smoke smells fill the air,
Children run stir-crazily,
The ice storm cometh.


Kind hearts harbor pets inside,
Feeders filled brim full
For chickadees, cardinals, bushy-tailed squirrels,
Pushing and shoving.


Television took me to London
To the Academy of Art,
To Kenya and saw giraffes,
Curling their necks in the sun


Now inside out frosty windows,
Purple shadows fall,
Winter beauteous for a time,
We long for sunshine's call.