The Playground in Winter

Maria ChristianNovember 23, 2016The Nature of TruthPoetry

Dear Maria,

I wish we could go back to the times when we were young,
You didn’t know what war was, really –
I knew but didn’t care.

Sadness was a far-off thing;
Life was joyous, a constant song
And the beauty of winter wasn’t lost, because we were alone.
There was no desperate cry for peace,
Nor sobs to end it all,
For dancing in the snow was fun, and nothing more:
Just something to do before the dawn.

Things were simpler, then, I suppose
But complicated in their own right.
The trouble with cats who live by the frozen stream
Is that they are free to think
And thinking gets the world to move
And melts the river ice.

Create a rabbit from the snow and burst it in one leap
If you dare, to earn the wrath
Of those who love the rare beast.
Sit upon an osseous throne to raise the roaring cry
Of a tiger that will haunt the dreams of many a child –
Including you and I.
It’s dream from which we can never awake,
A silence we can never break.
Is this the winter song that touched us both
And forged in stone what we loved most?

The river ice has frozen over
Until you come again –
This is a place where winter melts,
And the world’s formed by your hand.

Sincerely,
The Playground in Winter

Maria Christian is in 11th grade at Maine Connections Academy. She likes art, music, and outer space. Someday, she’d like to discover life on another planet — failing that, she’d like to write a book.