Free Verse#2: Purity of Winter Snows

At first I hear nothing.
Silence, silence, so soft.
Then a patter
As the falling white alights on the fallen white.
A breeze makes a bit of snow fall from a branch.
Softly, muffled. So soft.
A bird, sparrow, chirps above me and behind.
Takes flight,
Wings pumping air.
Swish, swish.
Lands on a tree.
More powder falls to the ground.
Softly. Shlooth.
Crunch crunch.
I step forward a few paces.
Still. Crunch crunch.
Crisp snow.

The taste of the cold is there,
In the back of my throat.
Swirls across my tongue and lips.
Ahh. So clean.
I taste a snow flake on my tongue.
Sweetly pure water,
Falling
Sweetly.
I breathe deep and taste it.

There’s no smell though.
No smell through all that powder.
So pure.
You can imagine a smell, though.
Imagine what crisp smells like.
And clean.
What does snow smell like
In the back of my imagination?
So pure.
I breathe deep
To find the imaginary smells.

Another sparrow wings past,
Sending a breath of wind over my face.
Goosebumps.
The cold runs behind my ears,
Under my hat,
Into my veins.
Chilling, but not freezing.
I can feel the little crystals
Landing on my face
Melting
Cold dots of wet.
They sink into my skin.
Cold, pure.
My fingers open up and let the cold between them.
It races around,
Caressing.
My lips are wet with breathing.
Toes cold,
Even in my boots.
Body cold,
Even in my clothes.

And all around me is white.
Pure, clean, crystal, white.
It encapsulates everything.
All branches.
Leaves, not yet fallen.
Blankets the ground.
Snowdrift,
So crisp,
White,
Wind swept to crests.
The powder is falling from the sky,
Like small angels
Coming to Earth.
Then I notice the color.
Gray branches,
Beneath the snow.
Green needles on evergreens.
Looking up
Red berries dangling,
Frozen.
A sparrow,
All brown and gray.
More sparrows. They look at me,
Take flight, altogether.
Like one mind.

The branches reach out to me.
I take a hand,
Pull it to me.
Or me to it?
We come together,
Fingers running
Over skin.
Fingers running
Over ice.
Breathe deep, close eyes.
Feel. Feel.
A calm opens up in me.
I feel all the stillness
Of the trees holding me.
Hours pass. Stillness, time is not noticed.
Seconds pass, loooong seconds.

Open eyes with new knowledge.
Beauty surrounds.
So much beauty.
Delicate, delicate.
Like tiny lace coverings,
Blanketing everything.
There is a great stillness.
Not a sound.
Not a smell.
Only white
And the pale colors
To be seen.
I walk.