I have terrible news to share with you this evening. It's hard to find the right words so I will just come right out and say it - Bob is Dead! Kapput! Deceased! Over! There. I have said it.
Perhaps there are snowmen that live forever - in Antarctica or by some hidden bay in northern Greenland - some place where ice and snow is everlasting - but here on the edge of western Europe in our changeable maritime climate, snowmen never last for long and that's the truth of the matter
One day they stand tall and proud with their eyes of coal or 2p pieces or small potatoes and four days later they are just slushy piles of the white stuff with their bits and pieces grounded on green lawns. That's how it was for Bob. He came into our lives last Friday morning and this Tuesday evening, as I look out into our night garden, all I can see is half a bucketful of snow under the rotary clothes dryer. By the morning there'll be nothing left. Inevitably, Bob will just be a memory. That's all.
Bob
Of building Bob
Where the clothes dryer usually stands
I rolled a big snowball down the slope
With gardening gloves on my hands.
I hate to rain on your party but the snow in Antarctica and Greenland doesn't thaw enough to be able to roll into a ball. Dry snow won't stick together. Lids would cut blocks of snow to make shapes.
ReplyDeleteWho is Lids? A Norwegian explorer?
DeleteRIP Bob! You were a fine snowman although I found your personality a bit cold.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that you could have unfrozen his heart Margaret.
Delete"The good old days - last Friday afternoon" - LOL
ReplyDeleteBob, we hardly knew ye :)
As the band Queen sang, "Who wants to live forever?"
DeleteSpringtime!
ReplyDeleteIt could be winter again at the weekend.
DeleteFor a minute I thought you meant me and I was kinda annoyed no one let me know!!!
ReplyDeleteRIP Bob
You just melted away
DeleteOn your old Bobsleigh!
I love your poem! At least you had Bob for more than a day.
ReplyDeleteIn Adelaide he would have been a barrel of water.
DeleteBob is immortalised by your poem and the pictures you took.
ReplyDeleteAs for the poem, I don't get the "Jimmy".
Thanks for asking. In 1966, "What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted?" was a big hit for a soul artist called... Jimmy Cliff. He asked the question and I gave the answer.
DeleteNot gone forever. He'll be back next year !
ReplyDeleteThat will be "Bob - The Sequel" - not the true Bob.
DeletePoor Bob. RIP...Rest in Puddles.
ReplyDeleteThere was a sharp frost last night and surprisingly something of him remains.
DeleteOh, poor Bob - RIP. Next winter you could "fashion" another Bob from a huge chunk of polystyrene. Much more practical and you wouldn't need to wait for real snow. He'd come out each winter and you could store him in the shed during the summer months. Of course there'll come a time when Phoebe will twig that Bob Mk II isn't the real deal!
ReplyDeleteLove the poem - it made me laugh.
No wonder Neil Sedaka made up that song about you! I guess you play it all the time. Why did you "treat him cruel" and let him go?
DeleteA few years ago we had a bit of snow, and I made a tiny indoor Snowman (about 6 ins tall). I was thoroughly derided on my page by the eager Snowmen Police. Yours looks (ed) quite professional.
ReplyDeleteSorry but your mini-snowman looked like a duck to me.
Delete"What becomes of the broken hearted? Once a Snowman but now departed." If Jimmy Ruffin lived in Sheffield.
ReplyDeleteThere's quite a few rough'uns (i.e. Ruffins) in Sheffield - like the Cocker family. The Blades and a gang called The Human League.
DeleteI find it kind of disturbing that you just left the arms and facial parts lying on the ground!
ReplyDeleteI am just a heartless beast.
DeleteMay he water the spring flowers, or drip into an underground word forming a stalactite.
ReplyDeleteMay he dance in the land of the broken-hearted till forever comes.
DeleteIt was a short but happy life and he was well loved. Not all of us can say that.
ReplyDeleteHe had no bills to pay and there were no funeral costs.
DeleteBob was fun while he lasted!
ReplyDeleteBob has gone Bobsleighing to Eternity.
DeleteYou scared me there for a moment, until I remembered who Bob was! He looks like Frosty the Snowman after he melted in the poinsettia greenhouse.
ReplyDelete