A Little Bit of Mud

Remember when you read me that poem

About September snow 

In hopeless

Sedona 

How it suppressed the desert echoes 

How

Arizona residents were startled by the stillness

They all marveled

Just as stunned as the critters in the wilderness

Some considered it religious bliss

Others found sand and snow blasphemous

They argued whether such unprecedent weather was evidence

Of the second coming

Or the beginning of Armageddon

All the while

I wondered how one could be shocked by snowfall

It made me smile

For those who thought it a signal of God or Diablo’s Call

But Michigan, Mancelona

I suppose

Is nothing like the desert of Sedona 

We're more lakes and hills

Than snakes and cactus quills

We see those squalls so frequently

I don’t recall being alarmed so easily

But I suppose

If a forest of saguaros arose

Along with scores of scorpions

I might seek the Koran or Corinthians

Because you don’t really see those in Michigan

But you read

And my head

Was safe

In your lap, on your legs

Where the

Blank margins of the page

Became the same

As that frigid place

A pure white blanket 

I imagined

There, I was standing

I could feel my heals

As they sank in 

……….

Half asleep, in some dream state

I was snow blind and couldn't see straight

I came to know I was there on my own

Within that Arizona narrative

In that barren place, uninhabited

With its rocks, red

It did

Look a little like hell, frozen

I noticed

Up there on that plateau

Satan and God all alone

As if from some deleted Bible scene 

They decided to let things be

Signed a treaty

Agreed, somewhat reluctantly

In order to continue

People require both good and evil

Since the Garden of Eden

Ever since Eve

It seems

We need both to believe

When God and Satan spotted me

I coincidentally came conscious from my dream

I awoke, knowing we live with this divide

But at least this sinner gets to get a glimpse of your angel eyes

The story ended with the snow melting

Certainly not the second coming

And once it was no longer colder

Those visions disappeared from their shoulders

It was

Neither the devil

Nor God’s son

Just a

Slight inconvenience

And a little bit of mud