“Yielding to the Half-Light”

The lantern oil gives out
before the letter is finished.
The last sentence trails off
into the grey margin

where the eye must guess the verb.

Let it stay unsaid.
The room is softer now that the flame
has drowned in its own well.
Outside, the snow begins its slow,

unhurried work,
covering the path to the pump
until the garden
looks as wide and empty as the sea.

.