When the Wind Was Just the Wind

The dawn wind howled

and I woke

my own tempest of worries

swirling

with the dried leaves of autumn

still on top

There is no snow this year

to cover them

no pure white blanket

to comfort and assist 

their transformation

from fed to food

Instead they are snatched up

in this reckless dance

with the voices of the ancients

keeping time

demanding they go

this way or that

It's the same with the living

 robbed of their land 

and their livelihoods

they too swarm 

in shantytowns of despair 

wreaking havoc on foreign lands

 I long for the whispering winds 

of my youth

when annihilation 

was just a word 

someone in a bad temper

had made up

To spread fear

among the innocent

who could choose 

to believe or not

as if noting melting ice caps

is an act of faith

And this unwinter 

is surely an illusion 

of the faithful

or the unfaithful

on this world 

without end