Meteorological winter

Maybe I wasn*t paying attention in past years, but the term meteorological winter had never appeared on my radar screen.  Of course I knew the winter months (December, January, February), and of course tomorrow is the last day of February, but somehow putting the term meteorological in front of winter makes it sound, well, a bit more scientific, not so folksy.  Here we are, snow full on the ground, waiting for the light to even out.  The snow is perfect for snowballs.

I understand we*re at the end

Of meteorological winter.

It figures the weather folk

Would come up with

Their own reckoning.

Forget the earth*s rotation,

The sun,

The moon,

The stars,

The evenness of dark

And light.

This is the end

Of meteorological winter

Here in Chicago.

Everything is covered in new snow:

A celebration

Of the occasion.