slide

It's the first day, and I always forget.

Short as the non-cold season may be here,

it's long enough to forget

how it doesn't take much--

a dusting, really, along with a cold night/day.

The snow turns to ice,

and what looks sparkly and pretty

and maybe even crunchy, if you get lucky,

is actually slippery.

One wrong step,

one extra swing of an arm,

one slightly-off-balance-from-carrying-a-bag-of-groceries move,

and suddenly I'm down.

and a car is coming.

Quickly enough I'm up again, hoping no one saw,

wondering what the bruise will be like,

glad I didn't get run over...

and glad to have gotten the first parking lot slide of the year out of the way.