CASPER
THE FRIENDLY GHOST
Snow
Snow has sentimentalized the world,
left it sugar-coated, a baked Alaska
conjured from the palest of vanilla ice creams,
the purest of swan's egg whites,
its mushy, too-sweet-to-be-wholesome look
topped with a confection of candied trees—
bare-branched candelabras—holly waxing
eloquent with berries in a citric winter dusk.
In denial about whatever smacks of negativity,
it stops death in its tracks, adopts a hard
line on burials, sets up road blocks, brings runways
to a standstill, placing travel plans on ice,
permitting no escape from its airbrushed vision,
plotting to frustrate communications
networks, keep bad news in abeyance, seal
the mouth of every outlet, stifle all dissent.
Its powder washes whiter than any rival's,
even the field-blanching moon's,
obliterates earth's lumpy surfaces, smoothes
its awkward bumps, insists simplicity is truth.
Too good to last, too huge a con-job
to sustain, too false a facade
to maintain beyond one season, snow's
hour of reckoning comes, its defences
crumble like a pomegranate meringue
gateau, churning mucky sludge,
a filthy vinegar of meltwater under which
the world it wished away can be defrosted,
dust itself off, when spring's no-nonsense air
prevails: its new twig broom will sweep
all vestiges of slush before it, letting life resume
its complex, messy, necessary routines.
Snow has sentimentalized the world,
left it sugar-coated, a baked Alaska
conjured from the palest of vanilla ice creams,
the purest of swan's egg whites,
its mushy, too-sweet-to-be-wholesome look
topped with a confection of candied trees—
bare-branched candelabras—holly waxing
eloquent with berries in a citric winter dusk.
In denial about whatever smacks of negativity,
it stops death in its tracks, adopts a hard
line on burials, sets up road blocks, brings runways
to a standstill, placing travel plans on ice,
permitting no escape from its airbrushed vision,
plotting to frustrate communications
networks, keep bad news in abeyance, seal
the mouth of every outlet, stifle all dissent.
Its powder washes whiter than any rival's,
even the field-blanching moon's,
obliterates earth's lumpy surfaces, smoothes
its awkward bumps, insists simplicity is truth.
Too good to last, too huge a con-job
to sustain, too false a facade
to maintain beyond one season, snow's
hour of reckoning comes, its defences
crumble like a pomegranate meringue
gateau, churning mucky sludge,
a filthy vinegar of meltwater under which
the world it wished away can be defrosted,
dust itself off, when spring's no-nonsense air
prevails: its new twig broom will sweep
all vestiges of slush before it, letting life resume
its complex, messy, necessary routines.
