Day 17: "A Winter Without Snow" by J.D. McClatchy

I chose today's 30 Days of The Five-Two poem wistfully as the third or fourth Nor'easter in three March weeks howled out my window, bringing six or eight or twelve inches of the white stuff with it.

Until then, we'd had a mild winter, and I could relate to the look McClatchy assigns the sky to open "A Winter Without Snow", "That wry look of accomplished conspiracy, / The look of those who've gotten away // With a petty but regular white collar crime."

Later tercets liken the feelings of someone who has relocated to escape the snow to the guilt of someone who's cheated on "a cold sickly wife".

Coincidentally, J.D. McClatchy died a week ago from cancer, aged 72. As with Jackie Sheeler, I'm glad to memorialize him with this entry.

—Gerald So