The Planet Has Shifted

The planet has shifted to
the obvious darkness of evening 
and fall of mercury,
En masse we find warm clothing and wait.
Snow is an equal opportunity event,
It does not play favorites.
We are buried or we dig ourselves out,
Stoking stoves or freezing.
Sanding or slipping.
Sharing a heated house with shivering rodents
who take chances dying in pink fiberglass
or carried off in the merciless jaws of a cat – 
where death occurs in stages,
in the paws of the whiskered Caligula.
Or they survive in a back cupboard,
gnawing on forgotten macaroni.