Now we enter
a season of reversals.
The last remaining leaves
of the honeysuckle bush
are ornamented in frost.
Jagged white fuzz
outlines brown oval-shaped pendants.
Even the pinon and juniper
exchange their evergreen status
for cloaks of white.
Yet as the cold deepens,
light lengthens,
dawn by dawn,
night by night.
The sun enters
its own reversal,
warming the earth,
despite snow and frost,
anticipating spring’s thaw.