As the cold winds of winter start to blow

 

As the cold winds of winter start to blow

Unrhyming poems and Freezing prose, 

Biting off the tips of my ears,

Dripping faucet of my nose,

Autumn wood is ready to chop

For dismal days that will not stop

This dam animal called Ohio-Penn

clogging streams

Making my dreams unpassable

Only hibernation could help me endure

That unrelenting ice on naked shores 

Bring out the fact of deadening down

As the warning of colored leaves 

drifts to the littered ground

Soon after the treats are sweep away

Revealing warm memories of yesterday

I will be thinking of Budapest and Prague

In my life's post season playoffs

The logs neatly piled on freight cars

Heading to Bohemian homes

Will not be seen burning 

In smokeless gaslight fireplaces

Cannot ever leave ashes when

Only absenth can smile my face

In evenings of burned out flashes

Or dawns spent recounting blessings

Unless I can break my thickening icy casket 

Gone until spring under cover will I be

Unless my grandchildren can awaken me

Shake the snow off the eaves of my heart

Lighten my evergreen branches with tinsel

Bring in a new year of hope

Bake me in their little hearts

Like cinnamon apple dumplings

Make my log jam of winter go

Release the river that within me flows.

Sept. 17, 2023