[2025:46] Austerity, [Editor’s Choice,]Thomas Smith

It helps to find a place to stand in snow,
feel the chill air sting your face. Listen
to that one crow break the upriver silence,
distinct in its aloneness as a stone
dropped in the water. Winter teaches
beauty in the specific: one swan borne on
the quicksilver stream, complete in its
being, more stunning to the eye than a dozen.
A single male merganser’s white-prowed skiff
cuts with effortless grace the self-healing
current. On the shore opposite, a lone
white pine extends its boughs like empty hands.
Austerity wraps us like a wool coat,
warms us by showing how little we need.