Whence comes so cold day as this?
Winter come creeping without any warning
then too quickly taking this unsuspecting morning
holding virgin flesh submerged beneath blankets long after rising
Whence comes so cold day as this?
so sudden grown
so harshly blown
in the licking whale tongues
of the wind.
How sits this pale and sickly sun?
Summer gone though embers linger
still well remembered the sun as grand singer
Days recalled with it hymning so strongly
that no wind would challenge
How sits this pale and sickly sun?
so sudden grown thin
so harshly blown in
and sung close to death by wintry minstrels.
It is thin and convalescent
and where the dive bomb bed spread?
Autumn’s reds and golds fully covered over
Seduced, laid under by a cold and wicked lover
The soft and easy rustic rug
now brittly breaking underfoot
Where gone the dive bomb spread?
so sudden grown thin skinned and white
so harshly blown in the tin and tinsel bite
of boot heels slipping mischievously
in seasonal uncertainty
Here then is a winter
baring all of its teeth
rearing its head, dandruff sprinkling from its mane
wearing a plain and cold and poker heart
though there be fire in its eye.
Here is winter come on very late,
a long time loitered while lying in wait,
collecting cool resources, collected at last.
Lands like a panther killing autumn fast.
Ian David Arlett
Peterborough Poets 