Winter entered stealthily

When he left abruptly

And leached all colors 

From my todays and tomorrows

Leaving a landscape

Of white and black

And shades of gray.

The road ahead lay

In undulating patterns

Of slate and pewter grays

Of frozen and melted ice,

Scattered in swathes

The white of snow.

White trunks of birches,

Speckled with black,

Crowded on both sides

In geometric precision

Of perpendiculars

Curving away,

In a perspective drawing

Of charcoal and pencil,

To converge into

A darkening tunnel,

Into the unknown tomorrows.