Venus Courts the Crescent Moon

After Thoreau

Through the window
The house cat
Watches snow fall on April Daffodils

The tops of trees
Sway to the rhythm of the wind

Fresh snow before dawn
Mutes the land

The wind collects garbage cans
Against parked cars
Like driftwood

The rising sun
Delicately brushing pink and orange
Across a clouded sky

Black ducks stand on the frosted bank
Of a glass surfaced pond
Flapping their wings
In a rising mist

On a hillside at dusk
Five rabbits
Gnaw the base of saplings

The bobcat slinks through
A field of fresh snow
Under a full moon

I collect the nuances of life
So that I may live deliberately
And not
When I come to die
Find I have not lived at all