<div dir="ltr"><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-87257e8f-7fff-25e2-c8ee-2dd68ff89180"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Winter bird</span></p>by Joan Myles</span><div><span><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">darkness has a way of seeping</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">past layers of air and misty rain</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">into the place of spirit’s keeping</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">to numb the heart and dull the brain</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">and I succumbed to woe and weeping</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">despite my habit to refrain</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">from morbid tentacles of creeping</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">dread and urges to complain</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">but wait I hear amid the deepening</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">fog and drear of daily pain</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">your lilting song of hope reopening</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">a world of brightness once again</span></p></span><br class="gmail-Apple-interchange-newline"></div></div>