In evergreens gravid with snow,
the red startles, a sudden flare--
you see
the rounded wind of bird, an exhalation,
before the bird itself
drenched in after-color:
then a beak plunging
into a bowl of bushy snow.
Cardinal given
like a sign that Gabriel gave--
flight substantiated to flesh.
Did the bird come arrived, not born
riding air
in stuttered arcs
beating at the glassy core
of dread
to shatter it--
to break the winter darkness.