The objective of the following lines is to demonstrate that those who live in temperate climates have a love/hate relationship with the winter season. On the one hand, they escape to warmer climates when it sets in. On the other, they decry the absence of white Christmas when the winter starts late. Secondly, there is an irony of sorts in the fact that the benefits of winter such as abundant water, purified air and lush spring greenery are not extended to those parts of the world where desertification and water scarcity hamper food production and poverty alleviation because those who have the wherewhithal prefer to spend millions on space joy ride than feeding their hungry fellow human beings.

And lastly, it is the greed-driven policies of the countries in the temperate zones of the world that not only produce emissions that poison the atmosphere, but also frustrate the efforts of those who make attempts to take corrective measures. 

Hear me well Uncle Winter
Tell me the secret
Of your ability
To crack bones
To bend knees
To Freeze liquid
To burst pipes
To demolish roofs
To topple poles

For months in a row
You reign supreme
In parts of the world
And in others
You are present
All year round

You spare no one
But as Picasso said (1)
you surely hit harder
The old and the sick

When you unleash
Frostbite and hypothermia
As manifestations of your might
Your agents of maiming
Your instruments of death
One might legitimately ask
Where is your counterbalance?
Where is your magnanimous side?

You are the master of contrasts
The matcher of contradictions
The unifier of opposites
At times you cause fractures
Yet you help heal bruises
At times you demolish dwellings
On lands below the arctic
Yet your abundant snow
Houses the Inuit (2)
In the arctic cycle
At times you seem all powerful
Yet you are tamable
By the likes of Cartier (3) and Champlain (4)
Who endured your fury
Who braved your assault
Who challenged your power
And in spite of you
Built solid foundations
For a new nation in the North
And proved that after all
You are not invincible

When you go on extended leave
And your snow melts
It replenishes the rivers
It enriches the aquifers
It enlivens the plants
Yet many a times
It creates havoc
By flooding fields
By breaking structures
By pulling power poles
By puncturing water pipes
By demolishing dykes and levees
As if you are on a vengeful mission
And people ask themselves
What wrong have we done?
To deserve this unsavory treatment

If truth be told
There are times
When your negativity
Outweighs your positivity
And if proof is needed
Ask the thousands of snow birds
Who, just to escape from you
Flock to the sunshine of Africa
To the shores of Florida
To the beaches of Bali
To every corner that shines and shapes
In this wide world

Your ice could benefit
Millions in the South (5)
By quenching their thirst
By watering their fields
And killing their hunger
But will those in the North (6)
Have a change of heart
Will snow custodians
Agree to share
Will space tourists
Spare a fraction 
Of their multiple billions
To transport ice in bulk
To far away places
And earn the gratitude
Of millions in need

Of late we see
Your wings shortened
Your drive loosened
Your tools unsharpened
Your powers curtailed
Your resolve weakened
By none other than
Those you helped prosper
In the Western World
Who as a pay back
Pollute the atmosphere
Poison the seas and rivers
With emissions and effluents
With toxins and trash
And condemn age old ice
To death and destruction
And when those who care
Whether in the South or North
Say enough is enough
And raise their voices
In gatherings like Copenhagen
Spoilers have their field day
And failure is the grand finale 

O uncle winter
After all is said and done
Give me a helping hand
And let me decide now
Whether I should consider you
An inspirational messenger
Or an awesome monster
For you seem to be
Both enigmatic and unfathomable

                                                                  
Bashir A. Gardaad
Email: dulmidiid@gmail.com

---------------------------------
Notes:

1. The famous 20th Century Spanish Painter who complained about the vicititudes of winter in
   the following words : “The older you get, the stronger the wind gets, and it is always in your face.”

2. Inuit: the native peoples of the arctic regions of North America and Greenland

3. Jacques Cartier (1491-1557) French  explorer

4. Samuel de Champlain, French explorer and Founder of Quebec City in 1608

5. South: used in this context to refer to the developing countries

6. North: used in this context to refer to the developed countries

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