In the quiet early morning,

when sleep slips silently away

and a cold nose is insistent

or a tickle tail is trailed.

 

When a heavy paw says,

“Wake up, come share-

a beauty to behold!”

Then I rose to see this wonder.

Of which I’d just been told.

Hidden by the darkness.

Hidden by a curtain.

Hidden by the night

and breach the vale of silence

to the glory of that sight.

 

No stars beckon from the heavens.

No moon stared back at me.

Only darkness, velvet darkness;

falling silence, mystery!

 

Three creatures by a window,

look in wonder at a night,

sleepy eyes are woken,

by a silent sense of bright;

in the softly lisping darkness

is a wonderland of white.

 
 

David Garlick, Sidney, January, 2005