Two A.M.
                     Published in The Christian Science Monitor

The moon drives ragged clouds

west across the valley

and smoke rising above the chimney

casts shadow

dancing on the snow

Bears and badgers

salamanders and bats

sleep.

Their dreams echo through the valley.

Freezing mists conspire

where meadow rises to timber.

Voles, deep beneath the snow,

listen to moonlight's bright rhythm

on the frozen crust above them.

In the timber, dark moonlit shadow

above the white meadow,

coyotes erupt into cacophonous song

blend into harmony

then drop to brilliant white silence.

Two a.m.