Snow Children

In the pale light of morning
After waking to a wonderland
Sheeted white and untraversed
A thousand delights at hand
My children dance around me
Unrehearsed and unrestrained
Joy and awe and love and hope
Proceeding in unbroken train.

They say how glad they are
I am home with them to see
The piles of snow, because the snow
Always reminds them of me.
I feel the flurries behind my eyes
And blink away the grief
I pull them in and hold them close
Each touch a deep relief.

I hope each embrace is immortal
Each one may somehow convey
The wealth of all my love,
All I don’t know how to say.
If I am ever old, on a morning
Breaking gray, cold and dim,
In a house full of empty rooms
I will watch each snowflake thin

Dance and frolick in the wind,
And in it, I will see each of them
Dancing as they used to do
And I will weep with gratitude

For every precious hour.