A Winter Sentinel

I stumbled through glazed trails
further off my familiar path.
Caught up in sweet thoughts
of twinkle woes and drug dust,
I was blind to changing trees;
I lost track of bristly evergreens.

When a sudden burst of light
flashed and stunned my eyes.
Its glare reflecting on miles
of a startling white sea.

Centered in this expanse
I glimpsed a barren fence.
No longer guarding its kingdom -
lingering for the sake of comfort.
An image of a beautiful past.

Why were you made so vast and sturdy?
What brought this much fear to your builder?
What would be found buried deep behind your shield?

Were you rooted here to envelop dreams?
To store them in dormant decades,
gathering opulence through years?
Until my misled mind found and tried
to revive the comatose visions
seeping like stains through your cracks.

In a wretched instant the images swarmed me:
A scaly tail peeking through a dribbling cascade -
a secret garden overrun by lilies
and daffodils the size of rowboats.
Like a strange dream I can almost recollect,
every petal, every leafy vine, every odor.

Oh, I do not know how I arrived,
but how compelling it has been!
To stagger across a fence
as desolate and disregarded as me.
Yet just beneath that withered shell,
lies a history of life and enchantment!

What a fortunate chance on this dismal day.
Though it's time that I go, I'd rather I stay.