Willow Tree Night and Snowy Visitors
 

Winter is tapping
on the hollow willow tree's trunk –
a four month visitor is about to move in
and unload his messy clothing
and be windy about it –
bark is grayish white as coming night with snow
fragments the seasons.
The chill of frost lies a deceitful blanket
over the courtyard greens and coats a
ghostly white mist over yellowed willow
leaves' widely spaced teeth –
you can hear them clicking
like false teeth
or chattering like chipmunks
threatened in a distant burrow.
The willow tree knows the old man
approaching has showed up before,
in early November with an
ice packed cheek and brutal
puffy wind whistling with a sting.


• Michael Lee Johnson is a regular contributor to IS&T and his latest piece has a very seasonal feel to it, for readers on both sides of the Atlantic – although over here in the UK the only chipmunks we hear chattering are in cartoons.