Given the magnitude of our budgetary
problems, the extra money to plow
today isn’t going to make a lot of difference.
--New
York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg
February 17, 2003
Unlike everything else
snow is its own thing
while weather’s packaged
nightly for a nation
of regions sharing nothing
but their own channel 24/7
On one coast,
it’s sixty-degrees daily,
buds bursting all over
while on the other coast
a blizzard blows two days
blankets powdery snow
Democratic in its failure
to discern holiday from workday,
inner city cracked pavement
from backyard burb
snow is the delight taken
in seeing everything anew
Bright white layers of drifting curves
unique, ephemeral snowdrifts everywhere
outlining never obscuring what’s there--
garbage cans, grates, parked cars
street signs, stop lights, fire escapes
window sills, brownstone stoops
Loved for its extremity
snow effects its miracle with vision
(more appreciated in a power city)
and speed (radical shape-shifts in only hours)
without really altering
what’s there
an ideal vision, this blizzard of the Real,
snow is contradiction
& out of contradiction we get movement (hooray!).
People love its randomness and its ubiquity
one belying the other
Meanwhile, down at the base--
the Accounting Machine rolls on
calculating how much
snow removal costs:
$1 million per inch.
What’s the rush?
Ah, the roads--for commuters
& business-day traffic.
Yet they misspeak.
It isn’t “removal” they’re doing
it’s road-clearing
and only on the major streets
Bed Stuy, Red Hook
will stay unplowed for days.
We couldn’t all
just come out
and walk
and romp
in the snow
dancing
playing
in the car-free
streets
at last
|