First light strikes the tip of the pines
as they wave in the cutting wind
while the cyan creek below
freezes over like a vein.
Across the road,
the old barn in the field
is bowled over in gold,
and my boots squeak in the snow
like bare soles in dry sand.
Why is it that I want to cry?
The trees and I stand on the edge
of it all, my eyes now fully alive,
and the locusts only pale to the view
Peter Ivey is the father of three pre-adolescents, a lover of trees and all places mountainous, an aging trail runner, and the director of Thrive NC, a Christian soul care ministry based out of Asheville, North Carolina.