Dec 4 prompt

This was scheduled to post 5mins after midnight; I should have known better than to trust software.

Today’s prompt is “snowbirds”.

Maybe this makes you think of birds who live in the snow, like penquins? Maybe you think about the birds who stay

for the winter? Or maybe of the people who migrate south for the winter? Or perhaps of Canada’s squadron at an air show?

How ever you define your “snowbird” – write about it.

Update: Here is my “snowbird poem – please note, this is a very rough draft …

snowbird

my love of christmas is a battle cry
it is my letting december know it will not defeat me
no matter what it has stripped me of

like today – the anniversaries, losing my father,
the beginning of losing arrin – instead of howling,
i will drape the new tree with lights that twinkle and wink.

i will fill my house with merriment and music –
life to replace december’s gifts of death and detriment.
i will not think

of any false friend who had shed my blood in december;
nor curse those who, seeing me wounded, threw me to the wolves –
i already had wolf blood coursing through my veins.

they already know their sins and will reap them; though i live
with their sins, i will not own them – i am the building,
not the architect. architects are forgotten by history.

history will not forget me, will not forget the season
of love. though i cannot buy presents, i move purposely –
with the sound of trumpets – towards december 24, that eve

and the next morning. and the next six. and that
all-important one the day after. no i have not flown south for the winter;
i endure the snow and ice, build fires in it and drink the melted water.

i know the days to be aware – december days – and plan accordingly.
fourth, tenth, eleventh, thirteenth, sixteenth, twentieth, twenty-third, twenty-fifth,
the thirty-first – my forays will be festive, my pockets full of kisses

yes, there will be times i will quiet and still, head bowed as i remember
those i loved and lost, those who are living and dead, parts of my soul
stripped by sniper shots and taken – but, in defiance, i dance as well

play carols and medleys as they bounce off the walls,
empty the attic and populate the shelves with wine and pine and silver,
stuff the postman’s box with greetings that go faraway places.

i will hang the mistletoe, place the elf on the shelf, open the door
hum silver bells and dance to jingle bell rock, light candles in the dark.
i will wear the santa hat glittered with my name.

i shall love the hell out of christmas
for my love of christmas is a battle cry i am not defeated.
i will still love. i will still endure the december snows.

Ariel

Reminder, my Etsy site CC Willow Arts will be 10% off through December (I can gift-wrap for you). Also – If you like my zentangle patterns, many are available on items, like pillows, on RedBubble. I’ve got over a few more new ones uploaded. And will get even more uploaded today …

If you are into community theater and in Oregon’s Willamette Valley – the murder mystery that I have been in rehearsals for – “Christmas At The Blizzard” -opened Dec 1 and is running weekends through Dec. 17. See Silverton’s Brush Creek Playhouse’s website for details …