snow thank you
we got a rare fall of snow
down here in South Carolina
it was fun for the day but
I wasn’t sad to see it go
snow / marriage / church
did them for decades, some
good stuff for sure but also
so / much / work
the grief outweighed the joy
it was time for them to go* My mom texted me from Ohio earlier this week: It's snowing! Are you jealous? Me: Nooooope Mom: Not just the teensiest bit? Don't you miss winter at all? Me: Not one single bit. I never liked it. Mom: I can't wrap my head around that! Me: What's to like about darkness and everything dying and treacherous roads and your face hurting? Or do you just like being safe and cozy inside? Mom: Hmmmmm... I'll hafta admit. It's the last thing you said. Me: It's easy to like winter if you have someone to go do all the hard, wintery stuff for you. Mom: You're right. I am very blessed! The convo continued and, with each new cognitively dissonant text, the metaphors swirled around in my mind like a blizzard. (To clarify, the rare fall of snow in SC was in January 2022, not just now. This is a poem from my new book, jaded.)
I love your metaphor, but I’m definitely on the other side. I’m a Floridian who despises the heat and humidity with every fiber of my being and longs to live somewhere colder. After experiencing summer for 8 months of the year every year, I am just over it.
If I may borrow from your analogy of snow/cold being like church: from my perspective, the constant, blinding sunshine is like the church forcing its “light” on me. The suffocating heat and humidity reminds me of the praise and worship music that I can’t stand, but the church declares is beautiful and that I should love. (Much like I often feel like the weirdo for preferring cool, overcast days to the bright, hot, sunny ones.)
Glad you’re somewhere that you don’t have to deal with winter, and thanks for providing a metaphor for church (though not as you may have intended 😂).
Marla, there must be a bunch of synchronicity in the universe this week! My post this week (tomorrow) is also inspired by [Ohio] snow, and I love Jamie's comment with all the snow / sun analogies. So much resonance!! I love the warmer seasons but I feel this pressure to do all the everythings when the weather is good, and it's nice to have an excuse to just sit inside and not go places.