Longtime Longing

the street curves away from my window three white parallels of traffic windrows shivering in almost invisibly falling snow the tightly clenched rhododendron fingers show temperature as well as any mercuric expansion leafless sapless twiggy limbs hold fat puffed snowbirds as the pale white sky surrounds their flickering tails the startling piece of lonely color a bright red fire hydrant wears it's london bobby helmut of cheery yellow almost hidden in the colorless roadside shrub but too loud to be ignored how far have we gone from orkney seastead warmth five thousand years of seeking peace before it finds us