Jeux d'Esprit

Birds are making beautiful noise;
Mice and squirrels hardly hear.
Ermines dancing in their joy
Stop to listen. Dinner's near.

Singing carols, voices strike the ear;
Sounds that fill the silence quite,
This night's music of the sphere,
Lights that spreckle welcome night.

White on white, the ermines, silent, playing.
Frost designs, like runes, might tell us more.
If we should listen, what the birds are saying
Could be magic: A thought to explore
In lamplight, while we make our lovely noise.
The season is for meaning. And for toys.
–December, 1996