Winter Reckoning

Take it from me, do not put your mobile phone in your back packet when going out for a walk in winter conditions. Yes, this poem is a repeat but apropos for the season.

Winter Reckoning

Once, I would have shown off

my bruises, badges of honor

bestowed by harsh winters.

Now, I wish to avoid talk

                      of broken bones

from icy sidewalks and grass

slippery as glass.        Or

                              the advice

to hike the halls of shopping malls.

          Boring as a treadmill.

Like a kid, I hid

              shin-swirls of blueberry

under my jeans until a pedicurist

spied them, evidence

of a misstep into a klutzy fall.

A balm of words bubbled-up,

           soothing as the warm water

                                massaging my feet.

Sympathy in a nail salon. What took

me so long?     The indignities

                   already past their peak. 

Marilyn Aschoff Mellor

Open Question

It's always dicey flying in winter in snow country. The recent Christmas delays because of bad weather had me thinking back to another "fingers crossed" flight.

Open Question

My visitors pace, radar concerns.

Only star-shine and frostbite lace

these windows, but lake effect snow

forecast to the east.

Christmas week played out.

Time to reverse the sleigh, fly back

through the night.

The winter storm musters,

casting shadows across packed bags

and family members, weather apps

and advancing clocks.

Happy chatter from the youngest,

but the rest sit in silence. All caught

in thoughts of "What if . . .?"

until their flight gets a green light.

Umpteen fingers crossed as they lift

towards Orion, including this grandma here

and the other grandma there.

Marilyn Aschoff Mellor