Simply Snow
By John Herlihy

The smell arrives first
A hint of wet freshness
The air crisp, edgy
The sky remote blackness
Blackness and starless
Then the first few flakes
To take the place of stars
Every time a first time
Every flake a fresh wonder
Falling in showers of light
Cascades of flakes ticked softly
Like clocks in a library
The sound muttered of mystery
Of ages past now forgotten
Of memories past now remembered
Of beginnings and endings
The longer it falls
The longer it uplifts
Falling like soft laughter
Uplifting as weightless feathers
Then the snowfall is gone
Left behind is the night
The world now winter white
The ruined moon rises
Shedding borrowed light
The stone-cold stars glitter
Shining their feeble light
Upon a phantom wonderland
Terrible in its beauty
Mythic in its truth.