a snow post

a striped iron post at the north corner of the garden, painted in alternating decimetres, sunk into the lawn before anyone alive here was born. it does not measure snow; the snow measures itself against it.

the cat in the basement walks past it in summer without comment; in winter the cat is in the basement and the post is doing its quiet work. nothing has buried it yet. one year, almost.

field-note · 38 cm and rising. snow has been arriving since the third hour after midnight. the silence outside is the local kind.

frost · winter · garden · thermometer · rain gauge