I am awake.
My mind, a murmuration of starlings.
Unsettled;
By grief
By love
By the weight of tending to others.

I close my eyes and
see it falling.
The snow,
slow and unrelenting.

A trusted constant.

I am covered now in a blanket of prisms.
A red fox, tail curled tightly over my eyes.
Resolute.

What do I know?
That I must bend in order to survive.
To move forward.

So, I will lift my head at first light,
And squint.
Listening,
for the resonant chorus of the forest
to quiet and decide.
One thing
…and then another.

It has to be enough.