Overnight Snow

Overnight snow turned up
like the best unexpected guest.
Today everything will be
upside down. Carnivalesque.

At first we use it to fight,
which feels like fun
until frozen skin begins to blister
and burn.

Later, as fixed smiles
make cold faces ache,
we know it’s time
to give in to adult commands to
Get back inside.

But first, in the kitchen
we must tiptoe on tabletops
and extend fingertips fully,
to dislodge dusty orange tubs

With wet gloves, we go back out to grab
handfuls of powder and make it compact,
then file it away in the freezer.
A keepsake.

Even then, it was a struggle not to think
That this infinitely mysterious frozen ocean
would probably become a pathetic slab,
dripping in the sink.