The Ball and The Snow

The ball was round and the ice was melting. John had seen it coming.

He wasn't easily fooled and was confident this would happen way before it did.

All his life he had searched the web for answers, but only ever found them within himself.

That was his safety which he had always relied upon.

Today though when he stood there on the ball which was on the melting sea ice,

he was perplexed he had not moved in two months.

He had after all seen this coming.

He gazed ahead and saw his doom,

down there under the ice in the darkness.

When he was a boy he had always loved water.

"You're like a fish" they had often said.

At this time he did not feel like a fish and guessed the water would be quite cold.

From out in the distance she came like a white mist,

floating silently towards him,

She was fair and flowing with a stern look upon her face.

"Why are you here wanderer and why do you not wander?

This will be your end, you know."

"I wanted to see the sparrows and thought I get up high" he responded.

She looked at him puzzled, the ball, the ice and himself in his frozen state.

"You're not the one who has been here all along are you?

Time has forgotten about you and is still out for tea.

You can come down now".

"I am where I should be." he balanced with a face set in stone.

She looked down at the ice which was disappearing all around him. 

Moved over and grabbed him with gentle arms.

Her touch sent him reeling inside, tingling with well being.

He lost all control and let her carry him away.

At the seas edge she laid him down by a tall fir tree.

"You know you shouldn't be here this time of the year.

Your time has passed, I know, but will come again next.

No need for this folly every time summer grows near."

He looked at her silently with sad eyes.

He tried to keep his hands from shaking but couldn't.

The tears fell down his cheeks to his white long beard.

"My life is without meaning when I've met all.

They forget me and leave me such a long time til then.

I know its a passing but hard just the same."

"The ball and the ice bring me comfort somehow,

I know that I shouldn't but hey there we go."

She smiled at him lovingly and said:

"It's not always the righteous that get their own way,

the sacrifice is sometimes what needs to be carried by those that can.

You have to find the reward in that you make so many feel happy the time when you come around.

 It is in itself a reward to be the one that carries this for so many."

With a sigh he relaxed and felt the earth move,

his hand was no more and the life left again.

The next time he would be, was that time of the year.

He was happy and content even though he was not there.

Her grace flowed after her and left no mark in the snow.

The blood red apple in her hand shone from a ray of the sun.

She smiled and gazed at herself in the ice.

"We are quite pretty aren't we, I must say".