stands impassive, his grey cloak
adorned with snow as flakes dutifully
follow each other to the pebbles and hedges
each one with unique DNA:
a vast battalion doomed like us all
but it's hypnotic to watch snowflakes fall.
They snuggle on the barren trees
on this rare mid-March whiteout
and nobody resides on the seats today
but I remember it here in the summertime
with tulips swaying in a gentle breeze
and a young woman with eyes far away
now a ghost as frozen daffodils sway.
Behind the park a canal hides
and with gothic Cardiff Castle across the road
I feel I'm in an eastern European land.
But this beauty is transient
as birds sing under a slate-grey sky.
Just a few short days before winter's death
I experience...its defiant breath.