Freezing Rain Poem by William L Roberts

Freezing Rain



With the crack of distant breaking trees,
Unheard and unseen,
Darkness and silence settles upon the house.
The furnace dies with a groan,
The game goes dark and silent,
The children's playstation ceases
And I sit entombed in ice
Entombed in thoughts and fancies.

For it's not a spring rain outside the window,
Not a gentle spring rain that raises crocuses
From their forgetful graves,
Nor a summer rain fit to float Noah's ambitious cargo,
Flooding streets and basements in its eagerness,
Nor a longed for fall rain
That breaks drought's iron grip,
No, it's a grim freezing gray rain,
That freezes old hearts -
They look at the black ice and shudder.

You call, 'Let's get the camping lantern
And play Hearts round the kitchen table',
But I'm entombed in ice, hard as marble,
The fragmentary words that penetrate
Echo random, without connection or pattern.

My cell rings, her voice goes,
'He'll be salting the roads all night,
The power's out, hey! , I don't like the quiet.'

Passing the kitchen and the lantern light
Your lit faces show how the future
Might flow straight and easy to its end.
I say, 'The servers've crashed, I have to go in.'

The power returns as I lie melted and spent
Encased in another man's scent.
'That's better, ' she whispers,
Her head rests drowsy upon my shoulder.
I close my eyes, blocking the light.
The rocking of the bed'd stopped all thought
Bringing with it counterfeit life and delight.
I think of the unseen power company crew -
Their gift of light's gone for naught.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Abha Sharma 18 April 2008

the allusions and superb nature imagery make this poem great...Rains are curse as well as boon...well expressed.

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