The Snowman
There he stood
On Croghan Hill
The snowman,
With cow-shut eyes
And withered stem of ragworth grin
That laughed with children
Where the battle raged,
In snowball fury.
The first white Christmas seen
For thirty years,
His thirty minute lifetime shared,
And we were loathe to leave
Our buttoned friend,
His back to Derrygreenagh
where the hare tracks crossed,
And recrossed
Where patch of grass might be,
And prowling fox was hungry.
The sharp report
That cracked the dusk in two
Told where the pheasant fell.
The Christmas truce did not extend
To nature.
We had seen his prints before,
Pre-Christian Imprimatur on the snow
While children's laugh
Re-echoed on the hillside,
And melted
With the snowman.