Winter Becoming Spring Again
Storm patterns change
when winter turns to spring
when Arctic fronts
leave ice and snow behind
and an atmospheric river drains
the tropics over land,
bringing winds and thunderstorms ashore
creeping up the mountain slopes
until high altitude
remakes the rain as snow
piling deep on frozen ground
awaiting sunshine soaking in,
transforming ice to snowmelt flowing
downslope once again
to burnt-off canyon hillsides
blooming where the fires raged
when fearful drought
from global warming,
became these lowlands burning
decades of annual growth recycled
reborn now in floods and mudslides
crushing toward the sea again,
where surf rebounds
from rocky shorelines
rising above the ocean’s heatsink
bringing balance to the country
while storing new cyclonic furies
in deep blue icy waters–
next year’s winter storms upwelling
from the past, the winter dying,
remaking this, our home, again
in patterns drawn from humankind’s
neglectful depredations.
