Winter’s March

   
Winter’s March
   
Now March is here but still old Winter reigns
And wheels his troops  in furious campaigns,
With waves of bitter cold advancing south,
And blizzards roaring east across the plains.

In January, his cannons thundered snow.
In  February, he sent us even more.
Now March has come and still he won’t relent.
We cower and we pray for him to go.

North American plains, eastern great lakes and Atlantic, 2014 January

  














But hope has long departed, leaving dread.
On city streets, you see the walking dead.
At start of Lent, they ask, “Will penitence
Give strength enough to face what lies ahead?”

Chicago lake-shore, 2014 January (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

    















  
For glaciers now appear where pavement was,
As some debate our future and its cause.
And some are crying, “Let us legislate!”
But Winter little cares for human laws.

Ice formations, Chicago, 2014 January
(AP Photo/Andrew A. Nelles)

 
 
And those of science, with their knowledge vast,
Declare, “Such things have happened in the past.”
But that, to us, is comfort cold indeed.
We wonder if, till April, souls can last.

We once were puny apes in tropic lands.
But then, we camped on ice and desert sands.
And now our engines can pollute the poles,
And what this does, no human understands.

Weakening of the polar vortex, causing cold air to spill  into North America, 
2014 January 6th (NASA image)
    
But those of wisdom, who are patient, say,
“The night is lengthened, but there’s still the day.
We’ll bear the cold as we have borne the dark.
When March has ended,  we’ll have April, May…

“For winters come and rage and then they go.
From empires too, we’ll surely suffer more.
In hubris, humans wreak their havoc, but
In time, they’ll vanish, like the remnant snow.”

Monster storm over New York City

                                                                                                  

Jesus recumbent over New York City  
                              

2014 March 4th, Tue.
Brooklyn, New York