Daylight fails in muddy cold,
thinning limbs click together,
leaves knock loose,
a knit soggy carpet
embraces the ground.

On high branch
Raven schemes,
spies,
potpourri clench,
cozy haze
shines warmly through
solitary pane.

Soothing glow lulls,
small promise made recalls others,
the list,
though long,
unravels too easily.

Deep in beady gullet
Raven hatches plans to hang
shreds of the moon
in that place no one
remembers anymore.

Burst of flight,
flurried wings scatter the ladder,
diffuse wet smoke
released to heaven,
chimney’s final wheeze.