Building Snow Forts

As summer days doze
As they do now
Silently edging their way
Crisp beneath white coats,
Snow packed
Tighter than
Our half frozen hands
Could bind together
Piled in heaps inside
Our Forts…
We used to throw them
Carelessly at neighbor
Kids…snowsuits
Bundled tighter
Then the flow of blood
Could take
We would laugh,
With cheeks aflame
And frost bitten
Noses, yet oblivious
To how good we had it
Blind to the monthly
Bills and the pink slips
We were so young then
Carefree had a name
And a place within
Our hearts and childish
Minds…why did we
Ever decide to grow up?
Summer days may
Have closed its eyes
Sleeping deeply
Beneath our feet
Yet these hands,
Though older now
More worn and calloused
These hands
Have become burdened
More responsible
And the forts
Are replaced with desks
With bills piled on them
And involuntary schedules
To keep…
Yet I look out of my window
And watch my children
Build forts of their own.