It's Still Life

A poem ending with a line from “Family Portrait” by Hafizah Geter

That Wretched Wind Out of the North

At first it was a flake here,
          then it was a flake there,
falling like random thoughts, then came
that stinging scent of snow, and
a smear of white clinging on the north face
of the old colonnade of trees.

The next day the world fell into
a reluctant silence. Ice biting on the thatch.

The creek was still flowing though,
shallow and fast as a heartbeat,
but upstream the salmon failed.
Winter caught them out.

Written for a prompt at Miz Quickly’s, and ending with the line Upstream, the salmon failed. Winter caught them. from “Family Portrait” by Hafizah Geter. Image extract is from Bruegel’s Hunters in the Snow. Poem shared with @Experimentsinfc #APoemADay on Twitter   © Misky 2021