This Morning...

I want to give you this morning,

It is one of those precious things I own.

No one else will see it quite like I do,

Feel its touch on my senses.

Stepping through the door I am met by the chill,

Even as the rising sun tries to warm me.

I can see the breaths of life leave my lips as vapor,

Moving quickly on the stinging breeze…

Then disappears into thin air.

The only trace that it was ever here,

Is the ice it left in my whiskers.

Moving across the frost-slick porch,

I descend the steps there.

One, two, three and then I hear the frozen grass

Crunch beneath my boots.

Quickly I walk to the end of the house,

Stepping there to cut the wind off.

My burning cheeks feel instant relief,

As the sun warms my face, absent of the breeze.

The reflected light from the wall behind me

Warms my back as I look at all around me.

A paper-thin ring of ice circles the pond below me,

Going maybe a foot or two from the bank.

Through the fog over the pond I hear and see them,

Wild ducks gathered with my tame ones,

Splashing, diving and exchanging tales

In little quacks and squawks.

An old black cow at water’s edge,

Looks at them with curious eyes

Before she dips her head again for another drink of water.

Way up on the hillside in front of the woods,

I see the ghost-like movement of a deer,

As it grazes quietly in the shadows,

Drifting back beneath the trees.

The pastures between us are painted

With the gray-white glimmer of frost.

As I watch the deer, I become aware

That the hill is turning green again,

As the sun melts the nighttime blanket

And causes it to dampen the ground.

Across the fields behind the place,

I hear an old tractor running in the distance.

Looking at the sound I find my neighbor there,

Filling metal rings with hay

For the cattle gathered there.

I see the vapor of their breath

As they sing him words of praise.

Softly on the breeze I hear their song,

Sweet music, a bit off key.

I want to give you this morning,

It is one of those precious things I own.

No one else will see it quite like I do,

Or you, now that you know.