February 27, 2013

ODE TO A NEW WORLD



I hoped fervently for a storm and spent the rest of the evening peeking expectantly into the outside.  Hesitantly in the morning I approached the window, and there was my reward – a wonderland of pure smoothness and light.  A perfectly made bed of crisp white sheets, drawn up neatly over grass and sidewalks alike.

Around every corner I find old haunts transformed.  A partially cleared path between brick pillars is now a white hall where some imperceptible king holds court.  I could lose myself in this new world.  The alien-ness of the familiar draws me in; everything is ready to be re-learned, re-known.

“Like a cartoon,” I heard a girl describe it.  Like Charlie Brown might emerge from behind the white lump of a bush at any moment.  Like nothing is quite real anymore, all this usual territory now a roughly drawn landscape.  Every open area on campus has been colonized with frosty armies, becoming more shapeless as a freshly frozen quilt quietly blankets them.

And beneath it all, spring sleeps.

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