Though I Be Unwelcome

Yearly - for a spell - I come calling, not unexpected. But there are times my travel may be slow. On such rare occasions when I’m late, you’ll look and see the mountains’ crowns remain uncovered, and in the valley, meadow grasses dance with gentle breezes, reveling in verdancy prolonged. Other times, I roll across the prairie bellowing. Assassin of startled vegetation, I wield a force God-given, and even dry terrain, where soil is sand, might feel the touch of my icy hand. And though I be unwelcome, I’m certain there’s a moment you look out on a pristine field where I have softly laid my eider down or to a street now silenced that strangely gleams in peaceful white. Or maybe you gaze up at stately mountains’ lovely snow-capped crowns, and in that tranquil moment, you are awed. For John Freeman's "the Pictures of winter Poetry Contest"