Once Upon a Childhood Winter

Once Upon a Childhood Winter

The wind places
feathery kisses on my cheeks
and the pearl white snow
turns back time,
as if by magic,
to when we were children.

As children,
we would venture to places
coalesced from wintry magic,
playing 'till we had rosy cheeks
and Mom said it was about time
to get out of the snow.

Unwillingly, we would stomp the snow
from our muddy boots, and, being children,
we would complain until the next time
we were able to seek out secret places.
But she said that our cheeks
were too red and that we could search later for the magic.

The day after the magic
of the falling snow
it was too warm for our cheeks
to frost over, and us children
were allowed to explore new places
until a much later time.

The very next time,
on quests of fantasy and magic,
we ran and chose places
to make angels in the snow.
They looked like us children,
but without rosy cheeks.

Still today, my cheeks
are flushed from the time
I spend pretending we are together, and still children
searching for bits of magic
between flakes of snow
in the most unlikely places.

I learned from this that snow is a thing of magic.
It turns back time and makes us children
who hunt out secret places with blush painted fair across our cheeks.