I know you saw it,
The snow coming down in sheets,
The snow you wished would quit,
The snow that covered the whole street.

White flakes escape from the clouds,
Flash in front of your vision,
The white all your sight enshrouds,
Until endless snow is all you can envision.

But did you see the sunlight this morning,
The gentle glow from the waking sun,
That, rather than a warning,
Was a sign that the night had been won?

Did you see the beauty that the snow held,
Sparkling like stars in the night sky?
Nothing from our eyes the Lord withheld,
When He made the snow shimmer nigh.

So remember that happiness can follow sadness
And if you don’t look for it, you might not find it.
Now if you’ll excuse this rambling madness,
A lovely snowman I will now outfit.

before that,
we sat pinned
and winded
on steel hands
and plated masks
near the crimson
jade pools
by the killing fields
of bordeaux

we did not look
we could not look
our eyes blinded
and seared
by the charred remains
and shallow graves
the battered birch
and caliginous path

drifters and vagabonds
and kings of kings
held witness
to the pounding
and overkill
the blades
cauldrons
and burning sweet-grass
all brought forth by healers

rammers, sages
and holy front men
glance behind
(watching them sort
through the rubble
and *****)
the blood flow
spilling its warmth
throughout the
festering scene

they pulled the stops out
on this one ~
those sweated woodlands
and churned meadows
now framed
by a burned
and broken cross

autumn like winds
begin to chill
(casting spells over ground cover)
night lights flicker
beyond
the fallen trees