< Volume II: Issue 2 >
Winter
by William Ogden Haynes
He pushed the snowball
across the front lawn
and with each revolution
it grew in size and weight.
Like Sisyphus, he pushed
the boulder as far as his
seven year old legs would take him
and that was to be the spot
where the body would stand
until the thaw.
This one ball used most of the snow
and lanes of uncovered tan zoysia
criss-crossed the front yard.
The head would be easier
because of its size,
but he had to go into the
side yard for enough snow.
He would have liked to use coal
for the facial features,
but the closest he could
come was spare lava rock from the grill.
Branches for the arms were no problem
and he had one of his father’s old
Caterpillar tractor hats.
People here do not wear neck scarves
or mufflers so he used an old bath towel.
The sun was already pushing
the temperature into the low forties
by eleven o’clock and now the entirety
of the dormant lawn was revealed.
Through the kitchen window
as he had a bowl of soup for lunch,
he saw the arms fall away.
It was the day he learned
that life is short for a snowman
in south Alabama.
Winter
by William Ogden Haynes
He pushed the snowball
across the front lawn
and with each revolution
it grew in size and weight.
Like Sisyphus, he pushed
the boulder as far as his
seven year old legs would take him
and that was to be the spot
where the body would stand
until the thaw.
This one ball used most of the snow
and lanes of uncovered tan zoysia
criss-crossed the front yard.
The head would be easier
because of its size,
but he had to go into the
side yard for enough snow.
He would have liked to use coal
for the facial features,
but the closest he could
come was spare lava rock from the grill.
Branches for the arms were no problem
and he had one of his father’s old
Caterpillar tractor hats.
People here do not wear neck scarves
or mufflers so he used an old bath towel.
The sun was already pushing
the temperature into the low forties
by eleven o’clock and now the entirety
of the dormant lawn was revealed.
Through the kitchen window
as he had a bowl of soup for lunch,
he saw the arms fall away.
It was the day he learned
that life is short for a snowman
in south Alabama.
HTML Comment Box is loading comments...