Fog obscures, thick drab shawl over the shoulders
of the pines, blurs the silhouettes, redacts the hills
on the horizon, their stacks of structures, street
lights, every human feat of engineering reduced
to noises, sources unseen, motors revving, tires rolling
over pavement, rushing river of modernity
moving, the frenzied scurrying of an ant hill dispersing.
Mournfulness surges as the sun creeps higher, warms
this restless array, pulls back the shawl, reveals forms
and movement, single yellow school bus traveling northbound
across the bridge, the briefcase-d father opening the back door
for his backpack-ed daughter, their singular black car reversing
down the driveway, turning right, estuary to stream to river
single crow on the lone branch atop the highest conifer, cawing
head lowered as if in prayer
unanswered.