Today we woke up to a revolution of snow, <br />its white flag waving over everything, <br />the landscape vanished, <br />not a single mouse to punctuate the blankness, <br />and beyond these windows <br /> <br />the government buildings smothered, <br />schools and libraries buried, the post office lost <br />under the noiseless drift, <br />the paths of trains softly blocked, <br />the world fallen under this falling. <br /> <br />In a while I will put on some boots <br />and step out like someone walking in water, <br />and the dog will porpoise through the drifts, <br />and I will shake a laden branch, <br />sending a cold shower down on us both. <br /> <br />But for now I am a willing prisoner in this house, <br />a sympathizer with the anarchic cause of snow. <br />I will make a pot of tea <br />and listen to the plastic radio on the counter, <br />as glad as anyone to hear the news <br /> <br />that the Kiddie Corner School is closed, <br />the Ding-Dong School, closed, <br />the All Aboard Children's School, closed, <br />the Hi-Ho Nursery School, closed, <br />along with -- some will be delighted to hear -- <br /> <br />the Toadstool School, the Little School, <br />Little Sparrows Nursery School, <br />Little Stars Pre-School, Peas-and-Carrots Day School, <br />the Tom Thumb Child Center, all closed, <br />and -- clap your hands -- the Peanuts Play School. <br /> <br />So this is where the children hide all day, <br />These are the nests where they letter and draw, <br />where they put on their bright miniature jackets, <br />all darting and climbing and sliding, <br />all but the few girls whispering by the fence. <br /> <br />And now I am listening hard <br />in the grandiose silence of the snow, <br />trying to hear what those three girls are plotting, <br />what riot is afoot, <br />which small queen is about to be brought down.<br /><br />Billy Collins<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/snow-day/
