All at Once

The second longest day
Of the year and my father says:
Look at that cloud; it's going to snow;
And my mother says:
That's okay; I'm wearing my winter pajamas
Tonight
And it's so strangely cold today
And the sky is purple, or rather the blue
Of bachelor's buttons, and I wonder
What will happen in Antarctica
Where melted-off shards of glacier
Are bringing new life
To parts of that ocean that never saw it before
Or at least not recently.
Things are hot and cold all at once
These days
And I am listening to you
As I pull on my flannel pajamas
This evening in late June.
If the sky is purple over Antarctica
Or just here
Where there are so many wildflowers
And dad says it might snow tomorrow,
What if those clouds are shards of iceberg
Preparing to rain new life
Onto each one of us?
Will you yield to this gift
Or cause it to bead up and roll
Into the gutter of futility?
What do you who are hot and cold all at once
These days
Think of all of this?