Snow

I burn in the blistering heat of the tropic noon

Remembering the snow that drifted down

Silently to fill my heart and chill

My very bones; snow that covered the brown

Death of that which I so fiercely love.

I woke to newness and a strange delight,

Wrapped in warmth I raced to touch and mould

The soft white flakes until approaching night

Closed the skies on childhood's happy hours

And feet and fingers stiff and red with cold

Led me back into the fireside

And a tinselled tree with ornaments of gold.

Far now from me those carefree sparkling days,

Ice crystals hanging from the eaves

A crust of diamond glass upon the trees

And in the fields the solemn snow-brushed sheaves,

The sun so bright, refracted brilliances

Seemed to blind the eyes in coloured rays.

And now a torrid friend bears down on me

Its bounty as my soul is set ablaze.