The New Normal - Jan 19 2024

 

The New Normal

Jan 19 2024

The snow is getting old.

Packed down hard.

Patches of ice

from freeze and thaw.

Pocked with salt

and ground-in sand

tracked in from the roads.

A thin patina of winter.

So we could use some fresh snow;

an arctic blizzard

and 10 good inches,

the city

grid-locked

in virgin white.

Or it will be an early spring

with risk of fire.

The trees, already dry,

soil nearly parched.

How long without winter

until we've forgotten

and don't even miss it?

When only the old folks will reminisce

while we indulgently listen,

wondering if, in their dotage

they're just making things up.

Or a cold snap

and we forget how warm it's been.

Because memory is short,

we're awfully distracted,

adapt too well.

The new normal, they say,

but there is no the.

Not when it's a moving target

and the baseline keeps shifting,

so little by little

we're losing track

of everything we've lost.