Ice and misery (but some extra sleep)

The weather has been absolutely awful lately. Night before last we had an ice storm and lost power at 7:30 pm or so. We were without power until sometime this morning. Jeanine and I spent last night at my Mom's house in Lexington. School was cancelled (again) in Harrison county. BCTC was put on a two hour delay. And we slept in a bit. (Actually, I slept in a lot sine I'm normally up by 6:30 am and today I didn't wake up till about 9:30 and didn't get up for another hour or so; quite a luxery, reading Reader's Digest and the Smithsonian Magazine instead of popping out of bed before first light.)

So the dog and cat are in Lexington for another night. And Jeanine and I will go back to Mom's for another night. More snow (but no ice) is on the way. My car sits at the road, a quarter mile forom the house-- still encased in ice and snow. This winter may never end.

Lost and found . . . .

Up by the road
Under a pile of snow and ice
I found my car today.

Ahhhhhh, winter!

In the quiet
After a snowfall:
                 bird tracks,
                         raccoon handprints,
                 deer tracks
                                 with dog tracks trailing.
Only the pink, blue and gray sky speaks.
         "More snow coming."

Puzzled heron for a puzzling winter

The Blue Heron
Hunched over--
a little old man
with wings--
a sullen
blue heron
stood on
Raven Creek
staring down
at ice
he could not
see through,
wanting fish he
could not find.

Desperation is about to set in

A Midwinter Prayer
Snow covers the ground
hides deer tracks
Halligan's tracks
car tracks--
      everything that walks or moves
      is still.
And yet the snow falls.
Snow plows are still.
Tractors are in run-in sheds
      or barns.
Everyone and everything
      waits for the relentlessly accumulating snow
to stop.
Just
stop.
Please.

Disappearing act, David Copperfield not required

Ghost Cabin

On a road lined with houses and trailers,

farms and businesses,

sits a single-room log cabin;

roughhewn and dating

most probably

to Daniel Boone—

Not the TV series but the one

what “kilt a bar.”

Who might have discovered the land

            on which the cabin sits?

After travelling down the Licking River,

            and then overland, following

                   valleys and Raven Creek

                        they stopped Here—
But why here?

And who stopped?

Before there were roads or houses—

much less trailers—

this cabin was.

When the surrounding forest

            was still old growth

                    and simply clearing the ground to erect

                                     any cabin would have been a long

                                                       and perhaps deadly task—

this cabin

came into being.

When was it built…

before the Commonwealth?

Who might have visited its owners?

Was it a slave cabin?

Was it a stop on the

Underground Railroad?

Did it harbor soldiers during the Civil War?

Was it a barn, a haven, or a home

during later decades?

What is its history?

What has been its life?

How many people lived here, in space

            not much more than 10 feet square—

                    often the size of a modern

                             bathroom?

Today the cabin’s nearest neighbor

            (just down the hill a bit)

is a garage—

fixing cars and trucks—

all and sundry

quite unimaginable to

those who constructed

the cabin in dense woods.

The cabin has an “addition”

that doubles its original size.

Still, today the cabin is too small to be used as

anything more than a weekend retreat

for Lexington hunters—

as a deer hung nearby

(and license plates)

this past fall attested.

Yet, at night

from my house

across the road and up a hill

when I look toward it down the firebreak

The tiny cabin vanishes—

a ghost of bygone days and dreams
        and possibilities.

Distraction

Soon
Walking into church
I was distracted
by the sounds of
honking geese.
Looking up I
saw a large number
of Canadian Geese
flying north.
On a cold February day,
this was yet another sign
that spring will come
soon.