First Snow

Sudden from the sky today Music my eyes alone could hear White notes like kissing lips Like cotton buds for bruised hearts Sudden from the sky today The world went from many hues To that of only white I stood amaze before the sight Like Drake at Darien Or Columbus when his Indies rise From sapphire seas to green his eyes. I touched the fragment of the clouds The cold, cold, body of beauty white And fled the numbness of my soul The austere cold, white thing Of which the childhood preacher sings When heaven was tomorrow And America was today A place to walk on streets of gold And because I was guest In layers of clothes they swaddled me While I stood looking at the tree Covered white like leprosy.