On the Mountain, melting snow and green
Spring girls surge up from murky Metro malls
Naked flames in search of gasoline.
Wet pavements glisten in the summer rain
Tight-trousered bucks paw the steaming town,
Ramp through love’s fertile, restless lanes
Trees flare like spreading bloodstains
From dying summer’s mortal wound
Lovers quench their passion in sheets of rain
First blizzard freezes like novocain
Tracks fleeing figures like a white wolfhound
Binds grey stone city in icy chains
Inside, girls browse Proust or Chatelaine
Watch for snow-cloaked ghost-breathed men,
Murmur long songs with a simple refrain
“Spring, grow green upon the Mountain”
Chris Atack is a science writer by trade. He has published two near-future SF novels (Project Maldon and Hunger Star) as well as assorted short stories and poems. When not hammering out words, he sails, tries to improve his French, does search and rescue with the Quebec Coast Guard Auxiliary and generally enjoys life with his wife and kids.