A Poeture Speaks a Thousand Words
Blanket of Snow
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Blankets of snow cover branches
Trees nestled in a bed of snow
Bushes like pillows on snow mattress
Sleeping Beauty beds down on snowy down feathers
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Branches dip in to pond
testing the waters
like a toe testing the bathwater
Is the water warmer than the air?
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Empty bridge between shores
Unity that cannot be merged
No one to cross the bridge
Why is it there?
Is it for lost souls
who might wish to cross?
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Is this stagnant pond in limbo?
Or is it the fast-flowing River Styx?
Where is the boatman?
Where is the boat?
Where is the corpse of the deceased?
So much water under the bridge
in a life that has seen so much
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Persephone in the underworld
Hades keeping her prisoner
Will she be back in time for spring?
Will the groundhog see her shadow?
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Hibernating trees under blankets of snow
Sleeping Beauties under blankets of eiderdown
Cabin fever and February blues
Spring fever and April rains
Do you not long for spring?
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May tree limbs poke their limbs out
from beneath blankets of snow
May trees stretch and yawn
and drag themselves out of the bed of snow
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"Hey you!
up and at em
rise and shine
don't be a sleepy head
come out of hibernation
don't sleep your life away,"
says the groundhog to the Sleeping Beauties.
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This is a poem that relies on allusion to make its point. From the references to Classical myth to Disney to Groundhog Day. Does it lose readers who do not recognize the referents, or does it enrich the poetic experience?
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