WINTER DIRT

The whiteness of the snow delights and awes,
Virginally pure, and glistening,
A universal coverlet, a thing
Of silver milkiness, a sterile gauze

To bind and hide the scars of earth, the mean
And nondescript. But soon the plows command
The pavement, traffic tumbles grit and sand,
The white dissolves to gray and grunge: obscene,

The aging drifts in crumpled palisades
Bury the ragged inheritance of crystal.
The sun moves higher, thawing, melting the twisted
Crusty piles, until the overlaid

Soil descends and finds its home again
Rejoining gutter, sidewalk, edge of lawn.

(153, Nov 17, 1994)

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