The Long View Incorrigibly Plural by Simon Barraclough

The network froze from the wrong kind of snow

so they carved up the sky and franchised the clouds

and tempests of tenders, flurries of offers,

brochures in blizzards descended upon us.

Heavenly companies, flocculent liveries:

Cumulo–Western–Coast,

Capital–Nimbo–Link,

Cirro–Southeastern–Star,

gliding like bullet points into the stratosphere,

each with a strategy, mandate, philosophy,

swelling the market of snowflake delivery.

Our cloud is committed to cutting–edge crystals.

The eye of our storm places you at the centre.

Our flakes have been voted the least identical;

from vapour to whiteout they were the most punctual

over the Christmas and New Year period.

In the last fiscal year we shifted a zillion

units of snow, including the state–of–the–art ‘Bendilo’:

dendrical with a hexagonal interlock,

leading to more compact drifts and an authentic

lacing around a bow window. And each metric tonne

of precipitate fun comes with a free scarf

and a kit for the kiddies of snowman accessories:

a carrot, some coal from a genuine steam train,

a pipe, a fedora, a handful of pebbles

for studding a smile into his blank face

like the one we’re committed by charter to place

upon yours.

© Simon Barraclough