Snow Day
BY BILLY COLLINS
Today we woke up to a revolution of snow,
its white flag waving over everything,
the landscape vanished,
not a single mouse to punctuate the blankness,
and beyond these windows
the government buildings smothered,
schools and libraries buried, the post office lost
under the noiseless drift,
the paths of trains softly blocked,
the world fallen under this falling.
In a while, I will put on some boots
and step out like someone walking in water,
and the dog will porpoise through the drifts,
and I will shake a laden branch
sending a cold shower down on us both.
But for now I am a willing prisoner in this house,
a sympathizer with the anarchic cause of snow.
I will make a pot of tea
and listen to the plastic radio on the counter,
as glad as anyone to hear the news
that the Kiddie Corner School is closed,
the Ding-Dong School, closed.
the All Aboard Children’s School, closed,
the Hi-Ho Nursery School, closed,
along with—some will be delighted to hear—
the Toadstool School, the Little School,
Little Sparrows Nursery School,
Little Stars Pre-School, Peas-and-Carrots Day School
the Tom Thumb Child Center, all closed,
and—clap your hands—the Peanuts Play School.
So this is where the children hide all day,
These are the nests where they letter and draw,
where they put on their bright miniature jackets,
all darting and climbing and sliding,
all but the few girls whispering by the fence.
And now I am listening hard
in the grandiose silence of the snow,
trying to hear what those three girls are plotting,
what riot is afoot,
which small queen is about to be brought down.
Billy Collins, “Snow Day” from Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems (New York: Random House, 2001). Copyright © 2001 by Billy Collins. Reprinted with the permission of Sll/Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc.
Source: Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems(Random House Inc., 2001)
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RELATED CONTENT
Discover this poem’s context and related poetry, articles, and media.
POET
Billy Collins
POET’S REGION
U.S., Mid-Atlantic
SUBJECTS
Nature, School & Learning, Weather, Activities
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Poems by Billy Collins
Aristotle
Canada
Cheerios
Creatures
Design
Fishing on the Susquehanna in July
Forgetfulness
Her
Introduction to Poetry
Irish Poetry
Madmen
Man in Space
Memorizing “The Sun Rising” by John Donne
Morning
No Time
Nostalgia
Print
Questions About Angels
Reading an Anthology of Chinese Poems of the Sung Dynasty, I Pause To Admire the Length and Clarity of Their Titles
Report from the Subtropics
Silence
Study in Orange and White
The Breather
The Chairs That No One Sits In
The Death of Allegory
The Parade
The Wires of the Night
Today
Winter
Workshop
Writing in the Afterlife
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Poem Categorization
SUBJECT
Nature, School & Learning, Weather, Activities
POET’S REGION
U.S., Mid-Atlantic
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