Canadian Winter

Canadian Winter Frank Halliwell At dawn you hear the crackle As the sap in frozen trees Splits the tree trunks like a gunshot Down below fifty degrees. And the crying of the kee birds As they circle in the sky, In ever smaller circles 'Til they vanish bye and bye- Up their fundamental orifices, Or so the story's told, In their fruitless desperation To escape the awful cold. Turn on the car's ignition And all it does is groan! You forgot to plug the car in, And the motor's turned to stone. But the sun on newly fallen Snow's a magic fairyland, And windows all display the art Of Jack Frost's gifted hand. There must be other places Where the weather's more perverse, And the moment that I think of one I'll write another verse. ***