Constellations

  by Gina L. Richards

the way the stars

knit together or how

in the early morning

they seem to move in

wide circles around

the thin fragment of moon.

…

the snow

as it falls in November

clings to itself in the grass,

disappears just before

it touches the sidewalk.

…

under the oak,

a shroud of autumn:

even a slight movement causes

a leaf to drop,

the near silent tick-tick

as it drifts down.

…

frost coats the grass;

it folds

underfoot:

a slight

crushing.

…

and the way smoke

surrounds the moon:

winter in

the sudden sleep of

earth, the sudden bright star

above the sunrise.