The Coming of the Toads

A Notebook – Since 2007

Tag: cold weather

  • The Day After

    The day after 
    the hottest day ever 
    snowfall covered 
    sunburned green fields. 

    Subterranean streams 
    flooded root cellars 
    and mothers combed 
    sediment from wet hair. 

    Ocean waves reached 
    the heartland 
    where the fathers 
    buried their weapons. 

    Honeysuckle blossomed 
    on trellises rising 
    out of snowdrifts 
    and by evening 

    of the second day 
    of the Age of Weather 
    digesting ducks turned 
    around and drove home.

  • Solstice

    We decline down the stairs
    amid icy stares underground
    stay warm huddled with others.

    We refuse the cold’s summit
    but around noon note a bit of
    the bump and we stand still.

    We see ourselves as heavenly
    in the arc of the sun and crouch
    of a close moon and our bodies

    rotate out of hibernal touch
    not to create a paradox
    but the point is opposite

    apogee if that makes you feel
    any warmer the closer you get
    the freeze-dry blue eyes.

    Back in August when we slept
    in the basement to keep cool
    you worried about spiders.

    All fragments yet perfectly
    balanced along hot and cold
    lines our lukewarm garbage

    sustains us through this
    our winter solstice
    when even time stops.