(trying to write away this heat)*

squirrel solstice

squirrels curled
in maple nests
are promises
built of acorns and seeds.

bunched in sleep,
they await the snow
that comes after night fall.

whisker twitching
twenty feet up,
squirrel dreams occupy trees.


        in monochrome season
        those gray and black bundles
        brush snow from limbs
        and punctuate the sky.