100% chance of snow

What with all this snow around me, a poem I wrote in college about a snow day came back to me. Re-reading it, I felt it was very...obvious. Bland. Trying too hard.

And so I did this revision, and it may still be trying too hard, but I like it more. Maybe enough to keep working on it. Or to let it float around my head like the snow and decide that it is good enough, just the way it is.



100% Chance of Snow, Accumulating 6-8 inches by Morning

“There's a 100% chance of snow for tonight, so kids,
you may not have school tomorrow.”
Terry Swails, the weather guy on KWQC TV6, said that and I believe him.

I 100% believe him.

I can’t sleep and
I stand
on my bed
on tiptoes
to see out the window
to see the white outside.

Sinking down
under the covers
I hide my head under the pillow and
pretend tomorrow.

I pretend what tomorrow will be.

I'm sledding down our hill,
the steepest in town,
our house at the top
full of hot chocolate.

The cold catches in my throat, even though
I'm warm in my pink bedroom.

I sleep with a smile,
content in my tomorrow.

A kiss from Mama at 7:30, and
I stand
on my bed
on my tiptoes.

Out the window,
it's sandy-scraped ugly streets,
grass peeking through barely white,
a melting mess
and our hill is an asphalt grimace.

That Terry Swails is a liar,
a 100% liar.