Early in the morning
the snow began to melt
even before the sun appeared
the snow left as it had come
with a wild headlong rush
as if the whole storm had been
an embarrassing error on nature's
part: a regrettable mistake that it
wished to erase and forget as rapidly
as possible.  A heavy mist rose from
the ground hiding the dawn groaning
and hissing and dripping: the snow dissolved
quickly into slush.  She was hindered
not by ice on the road but by mud.