LOST BETWEEN BARN AND HOUSE IN A BLIZZARD

1747

 LOST BETWEEN BARN AND HOUSE IN A BLIZZARD

-By Orv Alveshere-

SNOW CAN FIND YOU:  CAN YOU FIND THE HOUSE?
Luckily he had just arrived home to the farm;
Fast changing weather gave extreme cause for alarm.
He had just returned from an urgent trip to town.
Overcast clouds darkened the low sky like sundown;
Suddenly the wind bore down with a vicious sound!
The blinding snow was blowing sideways, coming down!
Checking horses and cows, a time he did allow;
That day he was wearing a brand new Mackinaw.*

VIOLENT VELOCITY, WALKING INTO HEADWINDS
 History records that on that cold winter day
Seventy-one mile-per-hour gusting winds came that way!
In moments he couldn’t see where he was going
Against the vicious velocity it was blowing.
But there was some distance from the barn to the house
That he must trudge to get to his waiting spouse.
He couldn’t see through a nearly snow-caked eyebrow.
He pulled up the collar of his new Mackinaw.

NO TURNING BACK IN ZERO VISIBILITY
 Leaning against strong head winds to stay on his feet;
Aware it was not the time to think of retreat.
Losing body heat walking slow against the wind;
He could feel it freezing all of his exposed skin.
He was deathly afraid of getting lost that night;
As he pulled his long coat and cap and mittens tight.
But he realized he must struggle on somehow.
It was luck he was wearing his new Mackinaw.

CHALLENGED NOT TO LOSE DIRECTION
Leaving the barn he followed the long steel well pipe
That would lead him to the windmill (vertical type).
Knowing that would shorten the distance by one-third.
But the loud roar of the storm was all that he heard.
He tied a big blue handkerchief over his nose;
He couldn’t get his breath and he tugged at his clothes.
Mortally afraid he’d veer off in the wind so raw;
He was barely warmed by his new Mackinaw.

   PACKED WITH SNOW
He opened one eye and squinted and searched in the night;
Then saw the glimmer of…yes, the kitchen light.
Visibility was zero, just one big blur;
She was glad see him.  He was grateful to see her.
The fam’ly was happy, all were safe in the house;
Dad took off his winter coat with help from his spouse.
But a strange mystery:  no one can explain how
A layer of snow was inside his Mackinaw!?

Long, heavy winter coat*
Orv Alveshere © Copyright 1996, rewrite 12-2009, all rights reserved
 

Orv Alveshere, an award-winning writer of humorous cowboy poetry and stories, “grew up hanging on a horse.” He writes about his lifetime of adventures.