Everywhere today the light is bright

Bright unto blinding, baffling the senses

Blue glow skies and brilliant burning sun

Create false warmth, notional, yet persuasive —

So persuasive that sundry people passing by

right now, December, sport naked legs, bared midriffs, even flip-flops!

Some madmen, so we hear, do not sense cold, but

these bare-skin folk don't all look crazy,

more like they've somehow been

seduced . . . by unaccustomed light,

think/feel/imagine themselves warmed, embraced

despite these plunging, freezing winter temperatures.

Sundry frozen surfaces, slick, just here and there

On side street sidewalks, old paved streets, and always

cloaked, invisible — no gleam, no rime, no silver sign, lurking

Under stray twigs, grey-brown leaves, slightest veiled declivities

secretly ice-smoothed, lie in wait to trick-trip too-smooth soles

Some fall and swiftly rise, abashed but still intact

Some rise up slower, bearing wounds on strange bared limbs

(Some fall and never rise, of course, just how it goes)

Yet still it seems the going out is extra needed now

if only to keep other pains at bay

as well as to address the daily round

the many, many things one 'needs' to do

as long as one agrees to do, agrees to still have needs.

Back home, all icy traps elsewhere evaded

some daytime tasks remain, required here before the early dark

So exit, burdened now with heavy salt held up in both gloved hands

to strew it here and there, make stairs and sidewalks safer

Though there as well, surprise accumulations

fallen leaves and twigs and stems, still coming down, it seems

have somehow clustered, clumped, and frozen hard, immovable

inside the very grain and grooves of city pavement

old stone, rough brick, uneven cracked worn steps

The salt may help, may not — may make things worse

Like most things now

Return quite soon through glassy door I'd left a bit ajar

Start in to shed — coat, gloves, vest, scarf, hat, sweaters

Divesting layers one by one by one, and stowing each away

Strange, quiet bustle sound occurs — three times! attracts my ear

As I continue briskly to peel down, un-dress

***

Conclusion of "Strange ice" follows