In The Storm

It snowed today, a sudden twisting whirl

Of white confusion, whipping through the square,

A burst illusion that Winter  had furled

Its sails and days would soon again be fair.

People scurried by, their baskets brimming

With baguettes and paper parcels, wine and flowers,

Diving for shelter against the storm,

were swimming

Through a sea of manic flakes, the minutes, hours.

 

Somehow we had forgotten all of this;

For weeks, no chill reminder of the cold

The dark days exact, and life insists

Upon, lest we forget we’re getting old.

 

I pulled my scarf still tighter round my face

And wondered, once again, what all this means –

If it means anything –  the heedless pace

Of change to weather and life’s little scenes

That play out all around us. This new world

Seems marked by lack of knowing, locked in loss

And glib forgetting, habits blithely hurled

Away, and at immeasurable cost.

I found some shelter in a grocer’s shop.

 

So much is disappearing, and so fast.

I want so often just to make it stop,

To know that beauty has a chance to last.

To know which things are real, that what I’ve found

Will still be there another time around.

 

In a café, alone, I’m left to peer

Beyond the random tea leaves of our time,

To prophesy a journey, face the fear

That hovers just outside. The room is warm

With coffee smells and conversation.  Now

I only wonder what? And when? And how?

 

Dardis McNamee

February 18, 2008