The Sleigh Ride Sestina

The Sleigh Ride Sestina

The child clings tightly to the sleigh
As December snow falls lightly from the sky.
A mother’s anxious eyes follow the swift descent
Of child and snow, cognizant of the clouds that roll past
Remembering her youth with fond delight
And knowing generations past and present watch.

There is no limit to the time she will watch
Up the hill the child trudges with the sleigh
The eyes of the child now filled with pure delight
As the ever threatening clouds cross the sky,
The mother remembers her youth now past
Some good, some bad in her thought’s descent.

Child and sleigh on the second descent
Mother prays that the angels above may watch
Giving thanks in her prayers for their care in the past
A simple lump of snow might overturn the sleigh
Sending child and sleigh and snow to the sky
Thank God, this downward path is once again a delight

The anxious mom in turmoil between distress and delight
With each new climb and each new descent
Ever conscious of the darkening sky.
Other parents now come to watch
Other children now with sled or sleigh
The memories creep back from the distant past.

Memories of that crash in that darkened past
Tend to mingle with memories of bright delight
A single crash of toboggan, sled and sleigh
Left jumbled bodies in that disastrous descent
While others could only stand and watch
With darkened clouds strewn wildly o’er the sky

Today there is no sorrow beneath this sky
She must again put that misfortune in her past
And simply enjoy the tender child and watch
Enthusiastic in rapture and delight
While once again the child begins her descent
Snow covered child grasping the sturdy sleigh.

Memories of delight overtake the silent watch
Surveying the descent and forgetting the past
The sleigh sails masterfully under the sodden sky.

Written December, 17, 2009
WDC contest, Sestina poetry.