Floriana Hall's "Iced In"
© 2004 Floriana Hall

It's been a January like no other one I remember
With one snowstorm after another since December
Slipping and sliding on driveways and walkways,
Automobile pile-ups on highways and throughways.

Surfaces covered with ice, sleet and rain, 
Icicles dangling from each window pane,
Outdoors a crystal clear glaze
Pure and translucent at every gaze.

A scenario quite exquisite to see,
Quiet and stillness unusual to be.
Nary a soul out and about,
Except the mail person, without a doubt.

Power and furnaces just quit sometimes,
Dire necessities in these frigid climes,
A bold adventure to walk to the mail box,
No weather for squirrels, or dogs, or fox.

Schools were closed to children's delight
But sledding on ice could be a fright,
Cabin fever slowly but surely crept in,
Like boisterous laughter fading to grin.

Where is May when we need it?
What can I say but to speed it?
Why can't I seem to escape it?
How can I try to reshape it?

Guess I 'll just have to see it through,
Watch it melt with a birds-eye view,
Time passes quickly, 'tis always said,
Perhaps I'll spend more time sleeping in bed!