The Winter Lingers

Officially, Spring began in March and 

Summer is just a month away.

The cold temperatures linger on, 

the few sunny days interspersed by chilly rains.

It makes one wonder what Winter looks like, 

since it's been cloaked so well in Spring's clothing.

People, fooled by the disguise, have ventured out

without warm coats, and ended up trapped

in rainstorms wearing clothes meant for balmy

breezes and sunny skies.

Beyond the runny noses and watery eyes

lie stares, looking not so much towards Spring

and its warmth, but back -- back to promises

of easier times unfulfilled by masters 

wearing Armani suits, in whose own hearts

winter has taken root. There, winter is not a season,

but a hollow place where a soul should be.

A place where greed has cast long, dark fingers

over the sky, robbing the people 

of warmth and light.

These men, whose phony smiles

do little to mask the cold glint in their eyes,

suck the resources out of the ground. 

They continue to cut the tops off mountains 

in their quest for increasingly meager returns of coal, 

the profits from which line the pockets of Congressmen. 

And the voters, the people who need to pay for heat 

to warm their homes, stand in the cold rain, 

wondering what they did wrong.