Winter Afternoon

Long sheds of coal and lumber

Are faded black and gray

Above the river's umber

Slow mirror of the day.

Sound, like light, is lessened;

The dark gulls do not cry;

Factory fires have fastened

Calm plumes upon the sky.

The clouds puff down, the airy

Perfume of snow is guessed.

A far wharf holds a ferry

Red as a winter west.