quiet

New Years night is foreboding

streets are without travelers

neither two-legged or vehicular,

no shadows cast upon the landscape

of grey and brown, an ugly quiet

Slowly the air becomes brighter,

falling flakes clouding street lights

and the dismal landscape silently

takes on a winter whiteness

First light reveals a lighter landscape

the garden is blanketed in white

shrubs and trees have laden branches

long awaited moisture has arrived

and in the stillness there remains quiet