Snow

Things I'd like to do but probably never will. When was the last time you jumped in a puddle just for fun?

SNOW

I doubt that I shall ever go

To any place where there is snow.

Those places are so far from here

and travel, nowadays, is fraught with fear.

I doubt that I shall ever feel

an enormous fish on the end of a reel.

Out there the water is far too deep,

with too many creatures with great big teeth.

I doubt if I shall ever lunge

out of a plane, and take the plunge,

and fall through the sky without a care,

and open the parachute as late as I dare.

I doubt if I shall ever drive

to the desert to watch the birds arrive

after the storms and floods have washed the land

and nature breaks out in a show so grand.

I doubt if I shall ever run

from here to the bridge just for fun.

My legs would hurt; people would jeer,

and ask, "What is he doing here?"

I doubt if I shall ever say

exactly what I think of the way

the world is being ruined by those in power-

I'd like to lecture them by the hour.

I doubt if I could ever soar

high in space above the roar

of this planet on which we live-

from which we take so much, and so little give.

I doubt if I would ever dare

stand on a corner in my underwear

and to the questions "Why?" and "Why this spot?"

I'd just shrug, and smile, and answer, "Why not?"

I doubt if I shall ever know

what makes this like this, and that just so,

and why this is, and why that was,

or any better answer than, "just becoz."

I doubt if I shall ever swim

with a dolphin, holding its fin

as it tows me along

showing me its beautiful world with beautiful song.

I doubt if I shall ever again sit high up in a tree

and have people arch their necks to see

me high, high, high above the ground

where the whispering wind is the only sound.

And I shall look down, then up

and again take to my heart the cup

of the joy of being,the sense of fun,

that I vaguely recall from when I was young.