UNSEASONABLE SNOWFALL

 James B. Nicola

Buds a-tingle with birth cut short

          by unexpected ice.

Children’s outdoor playtime, brought

          inside by worried moms.

A distant motor hums, then chugs,

          then stalls; a loyal Volvo,

perhaps, which disappoints for the first time.

I feel for them. I wreak appreciation.

I take note while I wait. Scrawl. Smile.

          I am Enthusiasm.

All surfaces bedecked by sudden snow,

boughs bend, but brilliantly, while hard soles slide.

          He shows up finally.

I put away my pen but am cut quick

by the dismissive shoulder turned away.

He does not say my name. Not once. He does

          not look me in the eye.

                    Not once.

He is still teaching. I’ve won The Award,

and, full of gratitude, I spring for lunch,

remark on all the stillborn buds outside,

the hoarfrost-sequined blanket now their pall

like first drafts never realized. I laugh.

How free the playground is of playground shouts

today. I ask him if he wrote this morning.

Of course, he says, but those are his last words.

          I scream but only inside,

like a child sharply shushed. I chug, I stall

with small talk: weather, food. We eat. I try

          to finish. Do. When we part

I’m ready

to burst

like the randy homebound brat who has just learned to drive

or the world’s

first

crocus.

James B. Nicola is the author of five collections of poetry: Manhattan Plaza (2014), Stage to Page: Poems from the Theater (2016), Wind in the Cave (2017), Out of Nothing: Poems of Art and Artists (2018), and Quickening: Poems from Before and Beyond (2019). His decades of working in the theater as a stage director, composer, lyricist, playwright, and acting teacher culminated in the nonfiction book Playing the Audience: The Practical Guide to Live Performance, which won a Choice award. A Yale grad, he hosts the Hell's Kitchen International Writers' Roundtable at his library branch in Manhattan: walk-ins welcome.