Search This Blog

Friday, 1 February 2019

After Snowfall


After Snowfall

Stepping through icy piles of snow
Cracked and broken tracks
Worn by many careful feet
That once picked their way
Crunching through virgin snow
Now hard-packed into holes
Thawed a while by a thin sun
Then frozen and re-fractured
Pressed and polished in places
To a glittering sheen
Of slippery treachery

The slush and sludge
Across the tattered landscape
Black and grey lines showing through white
Scarring and spoiling
The once-perfect shroud
That fell and cloaked the world
So many days ago
Its beauty faded and forgotten
The picture postcard image spoiled
And but a distant memory

The dirty, muddy edges
Of heaps of filthy snow
Thrown aside by cars
Broken, crumbling residues
Of smiling snow-men
That fall into formless shapes
And drip into icy puddles
Which drain slowly, bleakly
Into untidy, swirling pools
Ruts gashed into the ground
A smashed mess of frozen water
The dark, ugly secret of winter

Copyright Andy Fawthrop 2019

No comments: