Snow Day

Posted on 2019-01-09 by Bartholomew Barker

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Snow Day
“Put on your coat. It’s freezing out there.”
– My mother

I woke to the ticker-tack of sleet
on my bedroom window
in the middle of a school night
after the weatherman had predicted
several inches.

How could I sleep on this snowday eve,
more magical that Christmas?

Even in the dim dawn
there was doubt, despite
the unblemished layer of white
outside. Radio on.

Anticipation builds
like my Boo Berry cereal
floating in the milk,
as I listened to boring news.

This was Ohio in the good ole days
when weather was never the lead
and they wouldn’t cancel for just any storm.

Wilmington City Schools are closed.

I leapt from the kitchen table
knocking over my chair
thinking only of snow forts
and sled races while my mother
struggled to bundle me up.

Then bolt through the front door
and leave my coat crumpled on the ground
to be lost under still falling snow.

(Written from this month’s Visual Poetry Prompt.)

 

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About Bartholomew Barker

Bartholomew Barker is an organizer of Living Poetry, a collection of poets in the Triangle region of North Carolina where he has hosted a monthly feedback workshop for more than decade. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was served in 2017. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, he worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he lives and writes poetry.
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14 Responses to Snow Day

  1. Patty's avatar phillswrites says:
    2019-01-09 at 21:22

    I grew up back east as well. Snow days were everything!! Beautiful memories here. 😊

    Liked by 1 person

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  2. JeanMarie's avatar JeanMarie says:
    2019-01-10 at 04:14

    So sweet and charming!

    I was a Captain Crunch fan myself.

    Liked by 1 person

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  3. Cassa Bassa's avatar Cassa Bassa says:
    2023-01-30 at 06:19

    Yap we touched it out all weather conditions.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  4. Cassa Bassa's avatar Cassa Bassa says:
    2023-01-30 at 06:22

    BTW I have just read your 2 poems in the Hidden in Childhood Anthology..I enjoyed reading them. The teacber loved music and died young is quite sad. Maybe you wanted to cry but just didn’t want to be like the crying girls. I am not sure.

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