The Sand Hill Review http://www.sandhillreview.org 2004

Snowing Outside

Beginning in mid-summer,

walnuts thick and green,

cannonballs exploding in silver

blue pools, splashing pavement,

evaporating shimmering sizzle.

What it was wasn’t entirely clear

though there were indications,

as when, after a shower in the

afternoon, lying on clean cool sheets,

fan blowing its delta breeze

from the ocean at this lower

elevation, nothing found wrong

with anything coming in from

the bubbling tar parking lot

through automatic doors hitting

the solid ice wall polar blast.

Looking up from absorbing

lessons opened on the coffee table,

looking out the window to see that time

has passed much more quickly

than anticipated, snow avalanching

from the entry roof, floating down

in big leafy feathers down quilting

the mountain valley where we have just arrived

at the end of orange October.

David Humphreys