Winter White

The real Christmas miracle

was the year it snowed

four inches

on Christmas Day

in Georgia.

Waking to a world gone white

and silent

except for the shush,

a holy hush,

of fat flakes falling -

Red clay transformed,

scrubbed clean,

pristine.

The hollies and pines

dressed to the nines,

white tails and dapper bowties

punctuated with crimson,

garlanded ghosts of Christmases past -

The air smelled of sleigh bells

and chimney smoke -

every branch and fencepost

bedecked in frosted finery.

The windows of the house

framed the landscape,

Currier & Ives come alive

with the first ringing strains

of a long-lost Christmas hymn.