Winter Cabin Reality

Winter Cabin Reality by Odin Roark The storm door Improperly closed Bangs violently The clapboard shedding White paint chips Wounds without first aid Flecks of age Mixing with the drifting snow Walls shudder with the gusts Windowpanes rattle their death threat Should one shatter Beware flood gates of frozen forever When will guardians arrive The stewards of their weary retreat Providing solace for this place We so willing endure Harsh punishment This loneliness of disuse The fear of abandonment Looming Looming Always looming Such anxiety for... In order... In order to... Appease elements restless Unhappy Feeling forsaken The stove sad Laboring for no one The refrigerator longing Waiting like a giant petri dish Anxious to be opened and examined Bed covers squirm amidst Nature's innate seekers of shelter Six-leggers pass four-leggers in the night Perplexed Wondering Where is everyone? Field mice The basements fortress of faith Anticipate the happy slogging Of drunken feet above The excess food celebrated not Falling through spaces of beamed flooring Affording reserves for future seasons of need Thus awaits the wilderness shelter Determined to remain creative As temperatures drop even lower On this little respected life-saver Multiple-soul make-over haven Urban's satellite arbiter for sanity Earnestly it awaits yesterday's loyally Its generational-visitor relay Its reason to hold on Its inducement To stay whole Just one more year Crunching snow outside raises hope Two mice Three spiders One gentle squirrel share "Got to be more than a bear"