Snow Globe

Picture, public domain

Snow Globe

It is that seen, full half-glass scene

inverted for stirred blizzard swirl,

that captures youngsters, for control

a snowstorm held within curled palm -

so distant from strand, gold sand date.

For eyes behold real fantasy

in season, seeing changing globe,

earth’s ochre, umber, flecked with white,

soon fully whitewashed paint to be -

their world reframed, refashioned, caught.

This planet earth should be named sea,

for water is prime element -

ice, water, steam, a trinity,

those guises of known H2O,

though snow seems magic interweave.

We see the drip in flooding form,

a heaving sea, surge swell, trench deep;

that drop converted by the freeze,

exquisite and unique in flake,

though snowfall not for microscope.

Impressionistic gallery,

a whiteout hinting other tints,

through sky-full glints on mirrored ground.,

as if shades, wights, are hidden there,

wraiths, spectres, ghosts, back underground.

No forecast, front or weather map

bears on the wonder of the child,

their known frame transformed, muted site,

a blanket cover, sound and sight,

invisibility draped cloak.

Picture, public domain

Caked Snow

The straw that broke the camel’s back,

this gramme that doomed weightlifter’s heft,

that second short, athletic track,

or feather, more a leaden weight;

one flake’s beyond roof cabin’s strength.

A meringue whip, Alaska Bake

as insulation cresting foam,

each stratum forming layered cake

with blizzard breaks to mark out time;

week history - not tree year’s ring.

Admire those struts, angular prop,

expect lost skier flown off-piste, 

cathedral buttress holding drop;

as fantasy of Bond reminds -

a ski lift of less usual kind.

Some thaw, relations, dreaded store,

while entry jammed, door jamb in post -  

a cold war weeping, seep to floor, 

the logjam where no leaks, the boast;

though reel, imagination rips.