Sestina for Seasons

Sestina for Seasons

Winter trees, matchstick soldiers guard the house
Bare stoic sentries, snow- covered protectors
Bolt upright, steeled against arctic winds
Cast ghostly evening shadows on eaves
While a snow owl portentously hoots
A warning, forecasting floods of spring

Bursting buds, like popcorn kernels signal spring
Pink and white blossoms accentuate the house
A primavera frieze brings joyous hoots
From the sun-starved snowbound protectors.
Dripping icy stalactites fall from eaves
Like frozen darts lost in a Chinook wind

A warm kiss, the summer breeze, a hot wind
Stimulates the fresh succulent sap of spring
As burrowing creatures emerge from houses
Into the bright solstice beneath the eaves
Sing summertime praises to their protector
Deific orisons, the barn owl hoots

Dog days bring ennui, no one gives a hoot
Sagging sails still the vessel without wind
Drooping sunbathers wear sun protectors
Squinting, bodies oiled like coil springs
Ready to pounce on the coming fall’s eve
Await cool nights, autumn’s dawn on houses

In the mountains quaking aspen houses
A palette of multicolored tree shoots
Reds, greens, yellows splash nature’s eaves.
Leaves soar like Chinese kites in the brisk wind
Dance to nature’s mystical music, life springs
Into the cycle of seasons, earth’s protector.

Changing seasons, armament for the protector
Sojourn in phases, a pulsating light house
Illuminates birth, life, death, eternal spring
Through heat, cold, wind the tree owl softly hoots
A role call of names in the eternal wind
Ancestor’s voices echo from the eaves

The horned bird, a protector warns with hoots
Resonating through eaves as a light wind
With a spring rain bathes the peaceful house

Kbris 2006