Strawberry Horizon

There's a light on the horizon,
Colored scarlet with the dawn,
Bright with copper beads of vapor
Through the soft and breathing lawn,
With its fields of rushing grasses
And its skies of burning gray,
It's a strawberry horizon
Lifting up the break of day.
There's a sparrow on the picket
And a rabbit on the hill
With its nose within the thicket
And its ears against the chill
And it watches the horizon
Whiskers braced against the breeze
It can smell the loss of moonlight
And the fragrance of the trees.
In the early pale of morning
Foxes dance within the light
Paws a cadence of a warning
To their prey that take to flight;
And the does seem softly watchful
Eyes reflecting red and gold
In the rays from rising sunshine
And the snap of fading cold.
It's a strawberry horizon
Thick with crimson-swelling beams
And the clouds that edge the heavens
Are the opening little leaves.