Arctic Spring

Pussy willows, soft as pillows

Arctic Spring again.

Daylight hours sprout tundra flowers

That sun rays now defend.

Through frigid raid snow has laid

Month to month on end.

Creaking howls of cottonwood boughs,

Icy blasts that made them bend.

Winters toll round this northerly pole

Under harsh ubiquitous wrath,

Brought stiffening cold that cast a mold

Of death on every path.

Our silent cry to justify

How Winter has fulfilled ,

But weathered hands from spent demands

Our backs bowed from it still.

But oh the nights we curled tight

While blizzards raged so wild,

Our helpless sense of self defense

Bore fruit of our next child.

Upon the snow cabin lights glow

For howling wolves that creep

Their glaring stare peers everywhere

To penetrate the deep.

Our dwindling stash in the caribou cache

Now guarded by revenge,

Since late last Fall ravens raspy call

Warns intruders not attend.

Shall we succumb half frozen numb

Or thrive by solar heat,

As the equinox brings snow geese flocks

And Winters fast retreat.

Those infinite snows ; forty, fifty belows

Now, the sign of the time does foretell,

That the season be nigh, for Spring's reply

Bidding Winter its final farewell.

Alas, we sing bout this joyous thing,

Our long lost warmly friend

Pussy willows, soft as pillows

Arctic Spring again.