By Buffy Calvert
Dick and Roger Liddle’s cows
silhouetted against the sky
on the hump of their hill
Discovering
the swinging basket of the oriole’s nest
in the bare tree behind the barn
Clusters of flakes
drifting from a cloud-shrouded sky
testing the still-warm earth
melting away
Scarlet maple leaves
against a saffron sunrise
Candle flames of larches
shooting up from
the “bare ruined choirs”
of leafless forests
New snow clotted on the garden
Like powdered sugar
on a still-warm doughnut