Winter's Tale

The house is freezing,
but there's no one here
to feel the cold.

Snow spins outside the windows
every winter now - a growling white bear
planting splayed paws on the lawn.

When I was a child it was a rare thing.
Wild with excitement we would barely
scrape together a snowman.

Children are still excited
at the prospect of a frozen frolic -
a day off school maybe ...

but parents watch the weather
deepening year by year
news of tsunamis, hurricanes,
tornadoes, floods.

The ice floes of the great bear
dwindle in warming seas,
desert expands in the great
southern lands.

The signs of the end of days
are upon us.