Today the softness of clouds

soothes me

And the steady pale

winter light

gives me hope.

Even though the day

is short

and sensory overwhelm

hovers at my out-breath

I am as easily overcome by joy:

a flock of birds,

a bloom on a bare branch

a song that hot-wires my soul

And so tears flow

and only in crystalline form

would show the place from which

they have been drawn