Winter bird: on a painting by Shozo Ozaki
Tony Ullyatt

I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance
—e e cummings


Winter:
the earth draped
to the horizon
in that whiteness
that clenches
the eyes yet insists
you gaze upon it.
The filigree of
bare branches curves
with the deep snow
lodged there.
Amid a myriad shades
of glistening white
a small bird's silhouette
the epitome of stillness
in this starkest
of landscapes.
It knows this
is perfect weather
for carolling
its pure song resonating
far into the impeccable
quiet of the winter woods.
It's quite irrelevant
whether we listen.