Peter Skrzynecki: Snow

Snow

Families drove across state borders

so that children could see snow

for the first time—

with dogs running beside trucks

and kangaroos watching

from the edge of a forest.

Never seen anything like it before,

one farmer said.

He’d driven down to Tenterfield

from Queensland.

Hey, look, aren’t the kids havin’ fun?

As children laughed

and a snowball flew through the air,

followed by another.

Snow in summer!

This was “a first” in recent times.

A TV reporter explained it as a coastal freeze.

Another called it a joke

without denying the beauty and wonder it created.

Snowflakes continued falling

from a frozen sky—

swirling like confetti—

creating patterns on the earth

too mysterious to explain

as they fell in drifts across paddocks,

on faces, clothes, farmhouse windows

where lights were shining

and the road that lay ahead.

As TV cameras withdrew

and images started to fade

all that was left

was the sight of a child in a red beanie—

that glowed

like a burning coal—

running on a road somewhere

between Tenterfield and the Queensland border.

Peter Skrzynecki