Joy

Winter is the Day

You discover a new song.
Palimpsest of snow, so many
have walked this way before;
new again, this can cut away
the years, make a new day,
challenge the evidence,
the ever changing, personally
destroying, denied evidence
and this is the day it can start
anew.

Strip it down to basics — it is all
fashion—embellishments,
embroidery, frost, tint, layer
upon layer of mote upon mote,
each note nothing but denotation.
I will build a snowman Called Me,
roll it out of these frozen moments
to be built with a new regard for style—
rain may be tears, but snow is to dance
for the first time in ages.

toboggan

the best way to get through Winter
is on a toboggan
careen over the speed bumps
face or foot first
makes no difference, hurtle
past obstacles,
slide past those stuck in slush,
shoveling muck—
remember to wave as you
pass them by—
make time to grab an icicle,
Winter’s popsicle,
invite friends or strangers to hop
on board
that is all it is—a board with a horn
that blows “Surfs Up!”
to those who groan when it snows