PREMIERE SNOWMAN
Before the universe was born
Out of the mind of man;
Before mankind was
self-deformed
By his own grasping hands;
Far stretching through the
wilderness
The snow lay on the ground,
So dense within the forest
depths
No food could there be found.
The birds and deer grew small
and thin
For hunger in those woods;
The wolves and owls were
languishing
For prey to feed upon.
So faint were all the
animals,
So weakened and so chilled,
That they were inconsolable
And slept to ease their ills.
Then night came on, and with
it wind
That shivered all the trees,
And scattered falling
branches in
The drifts that lay beneath.
It was as though the wind
itself
Had feet and hands and arms,
The way it pushed the snow
about
And shaped it to a form
No animal before had known,
Or dreamt of in its sleep.
What we would call a Snowman
rose
Upon the hoary deep,
And sparkled in the morning
sun
Before the startled eyes
Of elk and squirrels and
chipmunks,
That fled from it to hide.
But as the day grew bright
with dawn,
The Snowman did appear
As shelter from the wintry
blast,
And beast and fowl drew near,
To be protected from the
threat
Of bitter cold and sleet;
And on the icy ground was
spread
Each day an endless feast
Of seeds and nuts and roots
and leaves,
Green grass that they might
find
As on the meadows that would
teem
When summer was so kind.
The predators no more did
slay
For food, but ate the meal
Provided for their former
prey,
Their kinship now revealed.
All through the stormy
season’s throes
They fed this shrine before,
Till spring dissolved the man
of snow
And offered them its store.
This legend you have now been
told,
Of how things took their
course
Before the world was bought
and sold,
And took a turn for worse.
