Friday, 13 December 2024

SNOW OBSTACLES... (My new poem about a painting by Knut Ekwall...)

 Snow Obstacles…

(From Knut Ekwall’s painting…)



Drifting wind-driven snow lying in piles and stacks

Has halted a steam engine in its icy cold tracks,

As passengers spew from the carriages stranded,

Encumbered by children and luggage, a group disbanded.


 A top hat from a glabrous fellow’s head suddenly flies,

Whilst a dog hangs from a wife’s clutch with terrified eyes 

And as her husband struggles with the remaining gear

Of hatboxes and a small trunk, a tramping child sheds a tear.  


A masked musician hauls his instruments, slack

Inside a holdall, as his companion carries upon her back 

A harp, as she clutches a colourful bag in the snowy squall,

Which causes another child to slide into an untidy sprawl.


Spilling like rats, the folks along an embankment toil,

Past spindly telegraph posts and deep snowy spoil;

Misty greys and faded hues surround a panicky scene,

As the human exodus obliterates the white landscape serene…


Pete Ray

13th December 2024…


Knut Ekwall (1843-1912) was a Swedish artist…


Glabrous, by the way, is another word for lacking hair, or bald… 

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