Classic Poem

There will be through the course of the years
a very slow build-up , he said.
One knows the final answer only some 10,
20, or 30 years from now . He said, Perhaps
by the time the deposit becomes a hazard
the true permissible levels will be known,
and the word permissible was downy
as fine snow. It is rather easy to show , he said,
an undesirable tendency to concentrate where
least desired . As though Jack Frost had touched
his mind. The obvious hazard is not always —
the flakes started falling in earnest — one might
almost dare to say not usually — the real hazard.
While snow drifted behind his eyes.