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VIRGINIA

From Lancaster Farms in Suffolk, VA: “Dormancy” is a video poem, a meditation on winter.

To think I was eager to pause and stare
When the first snow danced through December’s air.
Returning hero, ticker-tape-parade
The streets a meadow, avenues a glade.

Winter’s fine footman brought season’s greetings,
Family worship and festive meetings.
New additions to the family lawn,
Munitions collected, the battle-lines drawn.

Then calendar’s hung.
The Auld Lang sung.
Promises sworn.
New dreams aborn.

Until cold mornings birth more gloomy days;
Too soon bright visions are clouded by haze.
And the snow that was pure, covering sin
Grows dingy, dirty and ugly again.

My fresh tracks become ruts I cannot fill
While sovereign flakes fall wherever they will.
An ill fever looms; it calls me a fool.
Slowly tamed, subdued by this icy rule,

I cannot fight
Winter’s long night.
Would I could weep.
Still frozen I sleep.

Denuded and fragile, whipped by the wind,
Alone, forgotten, the numbness sets in.
But under white blankets, hidden from view
Roots are not idle but active anew.

The earth’s song is faint but there even so,
A ballad of hope: preparing to grow.
Look to your garden, understand its way;
Remember, this dormancy is not decay.

CC 2011 Arthur Lancaster Parkerson