2011

Weatherwise, it has been a  pretty awful year
here in Missouri

The winter was brutally cold
with unusually heavy snow, ice, and below zero temperatures
for long peroids of time

Keeping warm was the biggest concern, counting the gallons of fuel
as they went up in smoke
Then watching the electric meter spin like a top
Then worrying that the power would go out because the wires were frozen
and would snap from the cold

Then the spring, with the unusually wet atmosphere, flodding everything
And the clouds blocking the sun
that could have warmed the seeds that were not washed away
Then the heat, oppressive
The sun made up for the weeks of rain
and burned the crops that did sprout, and parched the land
It was so hot for so long that the leaves on the trees began to wilt and fall to the ground

This year went from winter into summer,
from cold to hot
with no relief in between

Whatever money there was, has been spent to heat or to cool
No crops put up for winter
No berries no other fruit

This will be a lean winter
The likes we have not seen
Since childhood

This will be the winter to remember
The winter of our discontent
The winter of our trials
The winter of our test

We know it will be difficult
the cubboards are nearly bare
the is no wood for the fire
the days will be shorter
the nights they will be longer
maybe the sun will shine
maybe the snow will fall
maybe the wind will howl
maybe the ice and the wind and the cold
will visit again this winter
as it did last fall
And
come the end of December
we will watch as the days grow long
And we will look to the spring
as better than the last one
maybe