Forty Below
Gouache 51cm x 112cm (20” x 44”) 2003  ©
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Forty below...the place where the mercuries meet

Smoke pours from the chimney
Desperately trying, to keep the house warm
Drifting sideways
In search of escape, on a windless day

Smoke and icy haze, hang suspended
As if painted, onto the background sky
Wisps of smoke, miles from their source
Vainly search for a hole in that sky

Frozen sky...and stony cold ground
Frosted trees stand like sentries
Guarding a silent and frozen world
Nothing moves...the world looks empty

Our breath hangs in the air  
With no place to go
Welcome to winter
   Its forty below   
Our parkas crackle
Like a wood-burning stove 
A Canadian winter  
  Its forty below   
Our boots feel like lead   
As they tread the hard snow
I’d trade it for nothing   
This forty below 

     copyright (c) 2002 all rights reserved

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