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.