Jeroen Kransen, Netherlands, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in a salute to:
“The Noisy Guys of Winter”
Into the snowy white silence
Come the noisy guys of winter.
Blinking yellow trucks scraping loud,
Parking lot tractors pinging in reverse.
Recycle rigs banging bins and doors.
Sirens wailing of somebody’s trouble,
EMTs and cops answering calls.
The endless flow of traffic hissing past.
Somewhere in the nearby woods
A barred owl calls for quiet.
The noisy guys of winter don’t hear it,
They scrape and ping and bang and wail,
Their noise speaking of survival.
Later, the owl’s call for quiet can prevail,
As the noisy guys of winter rest up
In the magical seasonal quiet
Of their own making.
