Storm Hype 101 (Prof. Chicken Little)

This week local TV meteorologists are absorbed in talking about our extended cold stretch. They entertain us with dire possibilities all while smiling broadly like the impresarios they are. But sometimes the weather, itself, calls them out.

Storm Hype 101 (Prof. Chicken Little)

Meteorologists in San Diego

need not apply.

Nor those in Tornado Alley

or hurricane locales since adrenaline

drives a crash course.

But weathermen/women in the snow belt

welcome to register and master

the minutia of forecast fever.

Learn the art of reporting an initial

warning in the muted tones

of a mourning dove auguring,

"Snowmageddon is riding in

from the Rockies."

Study the subtle tricks of voice

intensity, growing louder 

like a locomotive drawing nearer

until the din of disaster saturates

the station.

                         *

Trailing a predicted blizzard,

dawn sometimes reveals a pristine 

counterpane only a plump comforter deep.

Henny Penny and henchmen

now quiet as the night's snowfall.

Marilyn Aschoff Mellor