Great Horned Owls, Mid-Winter

My thanks to Red Eft Review and editor Corey Cook for publishing my poem today.

On our evening walk we hear them
in a stand of oak and pine—the female’s
breathy notes; the male’s answer, deeper,
like tones blown across a stoneware jug.
Before their sortie over snowy fields
they whisper greetings to their mates—
an alliance voiced in shadow. Our breath
clouds in the twilight.