When Winter Goes

Day 101:
When Winter goes,
Its icy breath exhausted and efforts spent;
When its strength and savage beauty fail
And it rises no longer from its bed
To pillage days with frost and snow,
And torture nights with acid winds,
Then ventures the bud to emerge,
The bird to sing in hope of mating.
When Winter goes,
And life returns to the Earth's warming bosom,
The lakes and rivers rejoice and creatures with them,
With a chorus of raindrops echoing their glee.
The hills shrug off their coats of snow
And clouds frolic above them, laughing,
When Winter goes.