CRAIG STONE WORKS GET IT?
    1
    12-08

So It Snowed

Part I

      Last will and testament.
    Testament at least.
    Or less. Whatever.
    Here’s how it went.
    Imagine I am shoveling and shoveling
    And shoveling and shoveling.
    Why am I shoveling and shoveling
    And shoveling and shoveling?
    Because I have to shovel four shovelfuls
    Before I can take a step and shovel and shovel and shovel
    And shovel again.
    Today the snow’s up to my knees
    And a bit soppy at the bottom.

    Even for me this is a bit much. Fuck.

    For though I’m only forty-four
    and a somewhat strong and cranky son-of-a-bitch
    who can fling a shovelful
    Over the easement into the street—
    I have, no shit,
    over twenty car-lengths of six ft wide public sidewalk,
    plus the driveway,
    plus the two walks up to the house to shovel.

    The stop sign has more to say than usual:
    “Whoa”
    “Do Not Enter”
    “Be careful”
    “Don’t go so fast it’s slippery”
    I say, “Whoa. Enough Already.
    If I need a hat I will wear one.”

    So I shoveled and shoveled and shoveled and shoveled.
    And in a dream within a dream without end
    it came to me as I shovelled blindly
    into that not so gentle afternoon
    that I may cease to be as I am known
    and be delivered by heart attack
    to the Lord Above.

    Part II

    After the Lord had rested on the Seventh Day
    He created Snow and causeth it to fall
    And Henceforth want it to be Shoveled.
    For the Lord thy God moveth in mysterious ways.

    Thus it was told to the forefathers that they shall shovel,
    And thus, as the forefathers had shoveled,
    So shall the fathers shovel,
    And as the fathers have shoveled
    So shall the sons shovel.

    And so shall the fathers and sons
    Gather the salt of the earth
    the Lord hath provided
    and salt thy walks.
    For as the Sun Riseth, so shall the Moon
    And thy snow shall melt and freezeth.

    And as thou knowest
    the Devil is slippery
    and in darkness doth he dwell.

    And as the salts of the earth
    gather in the streams and rivers
    And returnith to the sea,
    So shall the fathers return
    To the right hand of the Lord thy God
    And thus the shovels shall pass
    From fathers to sons.

    So spoketh the Lord.
    And thence did it snow
    And the fathers were wont to curse.