by describer one

Created on: August 15, 2009

A great and terrible beauty


Swirling white specks coruscating downward,
suffocating a warm world below, cold blanket
weaving itself on our ground, dampening sounds
Yet suddenly going horizontal with the winds.

Small eddies and wisps become larger drifts,
Filling and blocking streets, alleys, driveways.
A world once multicolored becomes monochrome,
Black and mostly white, whining wind, cold descending.

Mounds and mountains of snow impose a new reality.
Now humanity is no longer in control, but forced
To survive, learn to endure, make the most of it.
The snowplows and salt trucks issue forth, armies
of grim human determination to keep on going.

I look out my window, briefly, before braving the
Elements to attempt to get to work, and ponder:
"What a great and terrible beauty this white
wonderland is at this moment!"

That is all the grace I will grant it:
My mind is too full of expletives,
As I wield my shovel, trying to get
my long, gravel driveway cleared.

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