Thaw

Thaw

Yesterday
It was single digits,
Rock-hard ground,
Filtered, cold sun, and
A little nipping wind
Made worse
By the first moisture
Before the thaw

Today
The hills look like they are melting
Edges drifting away
Into mist
Even now, in the murk
Of what would be sunrise,
It is thirty degrees warmer,
And climbing

This is not benevolent.
Rain strips away
the grit we have laid over ice
Leaving glass under foot
Wet and slick
To send you flying
So fast,
You are flat on your back
Before you even know you are going down

And the rivers,
Calm, frozen yesterday
Are wakened,
Glutted on water,
Released,
They heave up ice chunks,
Big as houses,
Pile them threatening, grinding like giant molars
Then flow out of their banks
Reckless, taking this brief
January chance
To plunder fields, roads,
Houses if they can get them

By the day after tomorrow
It will be cold again
Like the cat,
Far from the broken jug
Of cream
Winter will say
"who me?!"