Miscellaneous:

[teller9]

Keeping Watch
by teller9

Snow begins falling
just as the sun goes down
I sit on a deep windowsill
watching it float
toward the street
hoping against hope
for a whopper
that would close
schools tomorrow morning

streetlights with rainbow
halos light the silent cityscape
as a lonely car slides sideways
on the slick macadam

a man on his way home
bends into the storm
holding an old black umbrella
before him like a shield against
biting wind

the cast iron radiator
clangs and bangs
from the pressure of
carrying steam-heat
to each of the
forty eight apartments
in our building

the sleeves of my
pajamas hang heavy
with the mist that
drenches them as I clear
my foggy window
to keep watch

the normal night symphony
of police car sirens
fire trucks and ambulances
fall eerily silent
leaving only hollow tunnels
of falling white flakes
to amplify the sound
of neighbors yelling at
each other in the apartment below
and the disembodied voices
coming from the radio
in our living room

the Nor’easter
wails all night

my nine-year-old body
awakens stiff and cold
from sleeping sitting-up
on that fourth floor
windowsill perch

vibrating with excitement
at the sight of five foot drifts
sparkling in the morning sun