frozen in mid-air

it drifts idly on a whisper

to its soft demise

the whisper dissolves

into the hearing of the earth which

keeps its confidence

silence rings within

the tongueless bell of the sky and beats

the trees with its stick

a pheasant startles

the snow on the powdered spruce as it

bursts from the forest

stillness resettles

its plumage with a little shiver

of its tail feathers

in the turbulence

of its sigh the clouds shed their blossom

in idle whispers