The houses on our street are still
festooned with lights and wreaths
on this fourth day of Christmastide,
and, having just returned from seeing
family in Yellow Springs, I give thanks
for time off and contemplate the snow
that just began to fall in tiny flakes
in our backyard in the leafy suburbs
of Pittsburgh, almost leafless now
in midwinter as time moves on
and the new year creeps ever closer..
