Cabin Fever

The first snow has yet to fall
when she screeches into life.
The tall, reflective mother had lain
down her books to give birth.

The father, like a puffed jay preening
on a snow-laden limb is made king
by her new life, adding luster to the
sheen of his first teaching.

The deep snows lock
in mother and child as the
teacher inches over ice to
his fulfilling classroom.

His daily return to the mother’s
cell glows with new life as she
develops an undetected fever
from her amputation.

Charles Slater written
1993 about 1960