The heavily laden
Mountain slopes
Slowly shed their winter coat
Beginning the slow spring melt
The snow and ice
Releasing the water
Imprisoned within it
Metamorphosing as it seeps
Into every crevice
Rivulets gently trickling
Into dormant streams
Gaining volume and momentum
As it tumbles downward
Swelling and growing
Feeding cascading waterfalls
And white-water rapids
As it races to the valleys below
In my back garden during last Winter
I saw the strangest of things
The fattest Robin I’ve ever seen
It was like a cricket ball with wings
Never ever catch a snowflake
In
your mouth
Until
you’re sure all the birds
Have
flown south
Two snowmen were stood in a field
In one of those cold exposed spots
When one turned to the other and said,
Am I the only one who can smell Carrots?
When I was very little
My dad and his brother
Built
a huge snowman
Bigger
than any other
He
was as tall as Dad
And
was round and fat
It
had coal for eyes
And
a big black hat
A
scarf about its neck
For
sartorial style
A
large carrot nose
And
a twig for a smile
Knobbly stick arms
With gloves at the end
A
belt around its girth
Like
a cummerbund
I
loved that snowman
Standing
so very tall
Until
the eventual thaw
And
I watched him fall
The chill wind
Bitter and biting
Buffeted the house
Rattling the windows
And whistling at the door
Exploiting every weakness
Exposing every crack
To chill us to our bones
