Winter. Morning.

© Shelley Banks

7:15 – Black sky. Orange streetlights. Grey snow.

7:30 – Sky, trees, lampposts one dimension. Midnight blue.

8:00 – Slate grey leaches colour from the deck, bricks, firs.

8:20 – Monochrome. The contrast sharpens. Charcoal outlines.     

8:30 – White grows brighter. Cloud or air or struggling light reflected. Ground. Sky. Ground.

8:40 – Streetlights turned off, trees deep gray with black scales, scars of severed limbs.

8:46 – Sunrise, by the meteorologists. A strand of unlit Christmas lights reveals dull bulbs on ghost white snow.  

9:00 – Palest streak of apricot above the rooftops. Clouds. Air. Snow. All filtered blue.  

9:15 – Green-black firs, russet bricks, sienna deck. An amber glow below the slate blue nimbostratus. Lavender shadows. Old lace snow.