Almost a Conversation

The quaint and tiny scene
A downtown that never was
Settled snow
Post office, barber pole, corner market
Children in coats frozen mid-play
Snowballs suspended in air
A grandmother in an afghan stands on the porch
A preacher in boots makes rounds
A man in dungarees saddles the horse
So very still is the stillness of this scene

Then a shaking, a disrupting
A blizzard sudden and severe
A swirling, a near-drowning
Vertigo, gravity defied and defiled
White everywhere, life upended
All things called into question

The settling comes as a surprise
Drifting flakes, following Newton, return to stasis
Clarity collects, activity ceases
A few final flakes fall to the floor of a small town briefly overcome
Until, at last, the familiar stillness, quiet, repose
A snowball, mid-air, hanging there