The weatherman told us
today would be awful
but I don't think he knows
what he was talking about.
A "polar vortex"
is really nothing
that we can't handle,
and not being able to drive
isn't really much
to complain about.

I tried to hate the snow
for keeping you from getting here--
but when I looked outside to glare at it
it danced on the wind past the library window,
careless and free and absolutely beautiful.
And though of course I miss you
and wish the chair across from me
didn't have to be empty,
it's difficult to focus
on the things I don't have here with me
when I'm next to the heater in a leather chair,
laptop in front of me and earbuds in.

And it's not quite as fun
to be here alone,
but I do have to admit
I'll get a lot more work done.
So promises of "next time"
will have to be enough,
at least for the time being,
and for now I guess
what we'll have to do
is both look out the window
and take in the expanse of whiteness
for something incredible
instead of
the burden the weatherman
told us it would be.