A Winter Memory

Before civilization moved in, settled
at the far reaches of town, people becoming
more than summer visitors visiting,
becoming residents staying, setting up hearth and home,
before it was Pleasant Street, numbered addresses, civilized,
for a few winter months it was snow-covered landscape,
unplowed, left unused till springtime melt and thaw,
and the hill, slow and winding, was ours:
youths’ voices, clear and loud, echoing in winter's chill,
to mount our sleds, push off, and glide, slide
downward, down, leaning right and left,
controlled path, picking up speed,
gaining momentum, and momentum gained
to spill us out across the snow -
memories of a childhood now, spilling out, calling out,
clear and loud, echoing through time gone by.