I’m not looking for a white Christmas
For
my life is already a cold place
Bleak
and forbidding
So,
I have no need of snow
Carpets
of white everywhere
Winter
fills my every day
My
life is perpetual winter
Because
you have taken my warmth
You
were the heart of me
You
sent the blood coursing through me
You
were the sun in my sky
Now
my life is tundra
And
I am just a frozen husk
To
numb to exist
The snow has come its falling fast
Its
time to dance about and cheer
Soon
it will be time to build a snowman
I
build the same one every year
When
the snow is lying deep and fresh
I
go to the cupboard in my room
Where
I get his hat, gloves and scarf
And
of course, his birchwood broom
Mum
says “don’t you stay out long”
But
she knows that I don’t listen
She
knows that it takes some time
To
build the perfect Mr Glisten
I
always start in the same place
And
make the body large and round
For
his head I roll a smaller ball
Rolling
it on the snowy ground
Soon
he stands up taller than me
Rising
up from the fallen snow
Each
year it takes a little longer
As
like me each year he grows
Down
his front go pebble buttons
From
his neck down to the floor
His
stick arms wear his gloves
Which
don’t really fit him anymore
Then
I put on his scarf and hat
His
birch broom stands by his side
Marbles
to make his eyes shine
And
a stick mouth smiling wide
Last
the carrot nose goes in place
And
I step back, and a moment spend
Gazing
at the happy snowman face
Then
I say “Hello my old friend”
Like a ribbon that's spun
Of the purest of silk,
The road crossed the cold bleak dale
It appeared that the frost
On the wintry panes
Was embossed with images from beyond the pale
And the winter-sky,
Lit with the moon and the stars,
Made the icicles glow in the night-
And the beauty of all
Of that December view
Was perceived in the essence of light-
And deceived by the soft...firelight.
Is pleasing to the eye
But this thing of beauty
Will cruelly linger
For harshly caressed
Is the naked earth
When touched
By winters icy finger
Lightly covering every acre
A generous white dusting, as if
Sugared by a cake decorator.
