It snowed all night and light for two days straight.
The hounds of heaven wailed and blew and howled.
We stayed inside, read books, made tea and ate.
The third day, calmed, the snowplows walled
the roads; they sprinkled them with sand.
Brown sugar topping formed on Jasper Street
but back in Cleveland Woods on skis the fairyland
unfolded, pure, white, fallen, deep. No sleet.
Far crystals round the sun in pink aureole shone
through rapid clouds, the day a swan’s wing, down
of goose, marshmallow pillow, Ivory flakes.
We put our gaiters on, skied frozen lakes,
still ridges, decked with spruce and pine, through
snowy tunnels, paths. Sweet, sweaty climb.
© Jane Piirto. All Rights Reserved.