to flaunt it’s might and callous heart
winter coils its heavy hand
with whetted shards of tempered ice
impales autumnal sleeping land

in shocked surprise sap runs to ground
bare limbs must hide in rooted place
blending with gray-tinted skies
to weather winter’s raging pace

rough-edged façade belies the life
ensconced beneath the frozen ice
rogue insects wait to till the earth
once released from winter’s vice

at slightest breeze of warming air
winter cedes its thawing ground
blustering in feigned protest
as nature cycles spring around

NaPoWriMo challenge day nine: write a poem in which something big and something small come together. “Big” weather meets “small” life forms.