Nothing inessential survives to face the cold.

Most beating hearts fly south or hibernate.
Photosynthesizers retreat into seeds, trunks,
and roots.

As life drains out of leaves, colorful wastes
enchant our eyes before giving way to plant
skeletons of former life.

Photo: Carol Freeman.

Icy ecosystems—graceful
in their transparency.

Some animals are still there,
hiding, living on what was
produced last summer.

But all winter, relentlessly, there is less and less that survives.

Photo: Mike MacDonald /
ChicagoNature.com.

Large predatory birds eat small animals,
as these get fewer and fewer for each
of the five cold months.

Eagles retreat to the bigger rivers,
where open water offers fish
to sharp eyes and sharp talons.

Photo: Art Morris / BIRDS AS ART.

The coyote wants warm blood.

A noble animal, making itself comfortable
mostly on calories from rabbits and voles.
Alert, stalking, keeping the balance of nature.

Photo: Richard Fisher

Every morning in the oak woods,
some animals find enough to eat,
but none multiply.

Everything eaten means that much less life. Week after week, there is
an unsparing trend, to simplify. Simplify.

Photo: Ray Mathis.

The downy woodpecker
too is a predator.
For every hidden insect egg
or chrysalis it finds,
there is one less beetle,
or butterfly, or parasitic wasp
next spring. To simplify,
simplify.

Photo: Carol Freeman.

Oak leaves wait for the spring and a possible fire—stored energy to burn back the competing brush. Oak leaves wait. Dead, but waiting for fire.

Every sunset marks one more day of survival from predators, one more night to fight off the cold. Every sunset marks the intervals of time—one day closer, closer, to spring.

Photo: Ray Mathis.