An air as sharp as steel, a sky
Pierced with a million points of fire;
The level fields, hard, white and dry,
A road as straight and tense as wire.
No hint of human voice or face
In frost below or fire above,
Save where the smoke's blue billowing grace
Flies flag-like from the roofs of love.
From Winter Solitudes, 2006 (Poetry and Good Cheer Press)