The Blizzard of ‘96

The Blizzard of ‘96

Merril D. Smith

A nor’easter the forecasters said–

as the wind laid a snowy quilt over sidewalks and streets,
and the frost-brittled lawn was transformed, a frozen expanse,
an Arctic sea; the steps and basement windows were thickly coated,
a layer of Wite-out erased everything that existed before the storm.

Too cold to be outside, our daughters sent their Barbies
on adventures through time and space,
to nineteenth-century Concord, to the USS Enterprise,

but they found their way back
to giggle-slurp hot cocoa and munch oven-warm cookies–
amidst the scent of cinnamon, chocolate, and wet wool,
I was strangely content,
as we bided in this cocoon of frosty white,
waiting to emerge and fly toward the sun.

Merril D. Smith

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