The Snow Elf

Crystals, in the darkness, fall,
A mist of wispy white.
While silence covers one and all
And nothing stirs, and nothing stalls
The snowflake in its flight.

Deep within the Boreal Wood
All blanketed with snow,
A tiny cabin there is stood
Wisping smoke above its hood
Against the winter blow.

A candle glimmers in the window
Glowing in the night.
And merry-colored bulbs aglow
Send prisms out across the snow
In multi-colored light.

A weathered stable, wreath-adorned
Sits back behind the house.
Wide tracks and hoof prints from the barn
Show signs of someone not long gone.
Nought stirs except a mouse.

A whistle draws a wandering ear
Back to the cabin door.
A tiny bustling from inside
A lid un-jarred, a shuffling slide
And creak across the floor.

Alone in thought, the Snow Elf rocks
Before a crackling fire.
With blanket cover, lap to socks
He sips his tea to ticking clocks
Too weary to retire.

His tiny glasses, wire rimmed
Sit low upon his nose
And in the candlelight so dim
With no companion, only him,
He reads a book of prose.

In solitude, for many a year
He’s lived within the wood.
Among the pines and polar bear,
He keeps a herd of tiny deer
In reindeer moss for food.

Once, long ago, he had a mate
To share his burden there
But seasons come and then abate
And neither time nor heaven waits
To leave an empty chair.

Yet day-by-day, he’s carried on
And tended to his herd.
In honor of his love, now gone
He keeps his duty, presses on
In keeping with his word.
 
He loves them with a father’s care
Each one, a special child.
He feeds them; brushes out their hair
And lets them run to get some air;
Protects them from the wild.

But as the snow falls light to earth
He knows when time draws nigh
That eight, among his little herd 
Will, chosen, leave his home and hearth
And once more, take to sky.

And all alone, he’ll pace the floor
And worry through the night.
Until the dawn breaks at his door
And those selected are once more
Returned from their great flight.

And for his service to the king, 
What does the elf receive?
What song, of him, do others sing?
The childhood joy his reindeer bring
On every Christmas Eve.