Snow Day
By Billy Collins
Today we woke up to a revolution of snow,
its white flag waving over everything,
the landscape vanished,
not a single mouse to punctuate the blankness,
and beyond these windows
the government buildings smothered,
schools and libraries buried, the post office lost
under the noiseless drift,
the paths of trains softly blocked,
the world fallen under this falling.
In a while, I will put on some boots
and step out like someone walking in water,
and the dog will porpoise through the drifts,
and I will shake a laden branch
sending a cold shower down on us both.
But for now I am a willing prisoner in this house,
a sympathizer with the anarchic cause of snow.
I will make a pot of tea
and listen to the plastic radio on the counter,
as glad as anyone to hear the news
that the Kiddie Corner School is closed,
the Ding-Dong School, closed.
the All Aboard Children’s School, closed,
the Hi-Ho Nursery School, closed,
along with—some will be delighted to hear—
the Toadstool School, the Little School,
Little Sparrows Nursery School,
Little Stars Pre-School, Peas-and-Carrots Day School
the Tom Thumb Child Center, all closed,
and—clap your hands—the Peanuts Play School.
So this is where the children hide all day,
These are the nests where they letter and draw,
where they put on their bright miniature jackets,
all darting and climbing and sliding,
all but the few girls whispering by the fence.
And now I am listening hard
in the grandiose silence of the snow,
trying to hear what those three girls are plotting,
what riot is afoot,
which small queen is about to be brought down.
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The forecast for Thursday was for it to look like the photos posted from a couple of weeks ago -- they even closed the schools, and I got Paul to drive me to the lab to get blood drawn because, even though it was above freezing, I'm afraid of driving in falling snow. As it happened, we got about three minutes of slushy rain, and the sky was clearing by the time we got home. So my day was mostly about scanning my in-laws' photos and papers, which was interesting -- so much family Civil War research!
I had my usual Thursday night fangirl chat after dinner, then I watched the end of the women's long program from the European figure skating championships, whose results I already knew but I wanted to see the programs before the Olympics (Valieva bores me no matter how many quads she can land with both arms over her head; I miss actual figure skating with musicality and emotion). Now, ridiculously, I am watching Flashdance, for which I have no excuse besides the music. How a snowy day is usually expected to look:
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