Winter's Sunset

I have three windows
in my little office,
just the landing up from
our back steps.
(We live in a Federalist house
built 170 years ago
with two stairways
upstairs. One just inside
the front door and one
in the very back of the house,
with a landing
ten feet by 12 feet
I call 'my office'.)

And their are three windows there:
one looks east into some evergreens
and one looks south into our back yard
and one looks west
to where the sun sets.

I looked out that last one
about 6:30 tonight
and watched the sun set
through the skeletons of tree,
bare of leaves for winter.

I watched for a long time.
The sun was between the color
of a lemon and an orange
and reminded me that winter
is ending.

Temperatures will be in the 40's
more often than the 20's
from now on in the year.

Spring will come.
The sun will move a bit
to the north over the next few months.
And warmth will be the norm
rather than the exception.

The sunset I watched today
is the harbinger of winter's death.

The passage of time
makes me older,
but I'll trade that for warmth.