Michael Ceraolo’s most recent poem to appear here was “Buzzer Beater (10)” (August 2016)

Winter Scene (1)
By Michael Ceraolo

A few feet of snow fell over
the first few days of February,
and
the park containing the creek
was closed for about four hours
because the parkway was impassable

Once the road was cleared,
along
with the walking and biking path
between it and the creek,
one
could glimpse a winter idyll:

all the varieties of evergreen,
decorated with snow,
in poses
picture-postcard perfect;

                                     leafless trees,
some standing upright,
some leaning slightly,
some snake-shaped and jutting almost sideways
from the banks of the frozen creek,
all wearing white coats;

                                    oak trees
with a few remaining brown leaves
prettily decorated

The picnic tables and park benches
have been reserved,
occupied
by piles of undisturbed snow

All animals,
                   except
for a few humans,
have remained out of sight

The library of rock
rising up on the side of the creek
is unreadable today in its
blindingly white covers

Outside the park,
the snow covering the barbed wire
sitting atop some fences,
and the dirt-encrusted
piles of plowed snow
(such piles a new kind of compound,
one
that will survive temperatures well above freezing,
that will survive until a lot of rain
washes away the dirt binding together
the new compound)
are less than idyllic,
but
the idyll and the less-than-idyll
are still a part of all of us here
whether acknowledged or not