second snow

I am chanting verse 9 of my first aliyah,

a bowl of blackberries and apple cinnamon Cheerios beside me,

fingers twirling the spoon, when -

out the window, there is snow.

Like a true New Englander, I shriek and rush to the window,

pressing my nose against the glass

in an annual display of childlike wonder.

It was hailing when I got off the bus, tiny little dots

of frozen rain melting in my hair, but now it is snowing,

it is snowing, really snowing and it doesn't seem

to have a beginning and we do not know when it will stop.

A few houses down, my best friend is decorating her room

for the holidays (she stuck her tongue out at me

when I told her I had my bat mitzvah lesson, declaring

she'd do it without me) and is probably drawing

little Christmas trees and hearts in her fogged-up windowpanes,

excited for all there is all the snow there is to come.

I really ought to return to my practice

and to writing poems that aren't about the snow

but it's too pretty to resist and look! the rooftops are getting

dusted with powdered sugar and the road is whitish gray,

and the windows across from us are yellow as if wiped with oil

from the Hanukkah candles I can't wait to light.

Darling, it's snowing, it's nearly winter, the ground is white, happy second snow.

(if anyone is wondering, an aliyah is basically a chunk of a torah portion that you chant during your b mitzvah, and they're divided into "sentences", or verses!)