Winters depth was cold.... sharp..... and bright.
Saturday was pristine...... endless and white
Ice cream!
It was our destination!
Miles hence
as flies the crow
'cross frozen wastes
in boot deep snow
Leroy
Roberta
and I
We were
Invincible to the temperature
that squeaked the dinted snow,
and made ice groan.
Fingerlings on tree branch ends
popped
like corn
We were Invincible.... We ignored!
Ice Cream! Ice Cream! Ice Cream!
A single minded mission
held by three
Forging scars
in a world un-marred.
Virgin world for us
but for snow no more.
Imprinted with our mark
No worldly hurdle
would keep us
from this dream
Ice
and Cream!
We were Foot soldiers
subtracting distance,
in a mimes frozen vision
of a frosty silent world
Undaunted,
onward we tread.
Invincible as Gods.
Superior to man,
As I've said.
We reached the river.
Our path behind,
a thread.
It tied us
to such comforts
as food and warmth
and bed.
We met the ice fearless
Our souls skimming cloud tops
Boundless in our self belief
Far greater than the confined dimensions
of what was real
Our Ice Cream dream
secure
Leroy
Roberta
and I
That deep freezer freeze
Held for years
or so it seemed
Stealing the breath
of days uncounted
Each memory hanging in the air
that Christmas break
Suspended
Like a frigid ornament
or the unchanging face
of death.
Chiselled in my mind
That river...
a congealed
unmoving
hibernating vein
Single file we forded
with a mine field mentality
Our Ice Cream destination
drove us on
The river screamed
aching bones rubbed together
by the weather
moaned and heaved
Tortured sounds
like chambered souls
escaped from the dungeon
of the river bed
wailing like the forgotten damned
The forever dead
Ice Cream....
Ice Cream....
Ice Cream....
We were Gods!
We would not stop
for the damned and the dead!
But There!.... There! ....There!
There collapsed the Godly dream!
River ripped wide,
an unholy seam!
Shore to shore!
Between my feet!
And all those souls boiled
Fleeing from the depths
for their escape!
Roberta my twin
and Leroy my friend,
like snowshoe rabbits
never felt that breath
and ran!
I FELL !
I fell that day...
clinging to my life
death beneath my feet
so wet
I clutched!
I grabbed!
I crawled!
I scratched!
Fingers digging deep!
Away, away, away,
I inched from that hell
made especially for me.
Saucer eyed and transfixed
my Twin and Friend
overcame!
grasped my wrist
and stole me from my end
and there we were
Him and Her and me
and yet...
we could not leave.
One Christmas boot was gone
as was the ice cream dream
Tantalizing
That boot seemed to balance
where the water boiled
icy cold
Hells rift gloating open
Its blood exposed
Boot there dancing ghoulish,
on the seam
And so we lay prone
upon the ice
A now less than Godly chain
Roberta grabbing for my boot
A prize of value
above worldly gains
She snatched that boot
and made quick retreat,
We were defeated soldiers
Him and her and me
We followed our string
t'ward comfort waiting
warm and safe,
Secure.
Serene.
Death had not beaten us.
Nor the wrath of Gods
Not even that river
where hell escaped
could claim that mighty deed
No!
No!
No!
It was a much hotter fire!
A colder ire!
The punishment
of "Mom!"
Our Ice cream dream died that day
as did something else
I no longer walk among the Gods
A diminished view
of self
Never again would I place my boot
within the world of men
Immortal and invincible
Now I am...
simply just a man
Roosty