The view from the bedroom doorway reveals a room awash in yellow.
A mystery color, as there is no sun- further inspection shows the cause.
A drapery of meager means filters the gray light, a cheap fabric curtain.
The tone in this room sounds different than the crunchy snow piles outside.
The yellow curtain, fabricated sunshine, tricks the mind to winter’s rival.
From the bedroom doorway one sees the still scene and swirls a cup of tea.

No honey, no sugar, no milk, no cream, pure- Alone, remains this tea.
A peppermint-infused, herbal blend, a de-caffeinated regime is the cause.
As the tea swirls, I marvel at the mental gymnastics to disguise winter outside.
Certainly winter doesn’t take it personally, and summer doesn’t notice its revival.
In an effort to create a five-sense depiction of summer produced by fabric yellow,
I go forth with canned flowers and breezes, and from bottom up spray the curtain.

Ouch! Now winter is hurtin’. I have blocked the whole season with only a curtain.
My apologies, Dr. Seuss. Yesterday, was your birthday. I’m far too simple to rival.
You were born in a March winter, I’m sure you sympathize. Born clear, like my tea.
Bathed in heat from a forced air system, standing in the bright light bare yellow,
I peek through the sliver where the curtains part and note the frozen land outside.
Soundlessly I listen to a curious noise and wonder: "What could be the cause."

Parting the fabric further and turning my neck 33 degrees, a sight gives me pause.
A javelin drips upon a flower pot below. It makes a puddle clear, like my tea.
Perhaps winter passes and that icicle filled flower pot will grow a blossom yellow.
A happy notion but simply not heartwarming enough encourage me to venture outside.
So here we are, you, me, a memory of Dr. Seuss, standing near a smelly curtain.
I wonder how we shall ever tell the story of our seasonal survival.

Ah Winter! Your skilled freeze through my blood hath no rival!
Swish the fabric panels shut. Get the “Krazy Gloo”. Don’t open that curtain.
Walk sternly toward the kitchen to bubble and brew another pot of tea.
Allow your mind to drift and dream, cease to analyze the problem and its cause
Switch from peppermint to chamomile and allow your heated mind to mellow.
Whatever you do, don’t go outside.

Winter is a grizzly bear tapping a clawed paw and growling outside.
Except, grizzlies hibernate and are too odiferous to be concealed by curtain.
And, only polar bears are white, grizzlies are more the color of my cup of tea.
When I thought winter why did I think grizzly instead of polar? Polar is cause.
Cause but not effect, the effect is grizzly- if polar and grizzly ever rival.
Lesson, if polar and grizzly come to town don’t eat the snow if its yellow.

So the sestina ends its song, as it began, on a note not blue, but yellow.
And the curtain still rivals a sense of summer when I would drink iced tea.
Winter’s breath cannot cause me to abandon my canned floral breezes inside.