Kim Denise
snowman kit (with optional bowl)
At last there came a winter without snowmen. It was not entirely a winter without snow, although for much of January and all of February the ground was only frozen mud and deadish grasses. When the snow came it draped the bleakness in a clean white sheet, like a political coverup, and like such it would eventually melt away to show the ugly truth which everyone always knew was skulking below.
For years the children had been leaning towards making forts with the snow instead. Unknowingly they copied the designs used for settlements in Aceramic Neolithic times, little round dwellings strategically clustered together like honeycomb. Sometimes there would be a sentinel snowman standing guard on the periphery. Then finally this winter all the schoolyard snow was used for forts. When the teacher asked “why no snowman?” they didn’t have an answer, but instinctively she understood.
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