LI

NO brigadier throughout the year

So civic as the jay.

A neighbor and a warrior too,

With shrill felicity

 

Pursuing winds that censure us

A February day,

The brother of the universe

Was never blown away.

 

The snow and he are intimate;

I ‘ve often seen them play

When heaven looked upon us all

With such severity,

 

I felt apology were due

To an insulted sky,

Whose pompous frown was nutriment

To their temerity.

 

The pillow of this daring head

Is pungent evergreens;

His larder — terse and militant —

Unknown, refreshing things;

 

His character a tonic,

His future a dispute;

Unfair an immortality

That leaves this neighbor out.