Two winters ago, we built a snowman
and named him Edgar.
He stood four feet tall,
and leaned slightly forward,
with a stoop.
His stick arms were open wide,
as if pleading for something.

We dressed him in a scarf,
knitted with red and white yarn
and gave him brown eyes
and a crooked smile
lined with pebbles
from the garden.

He seemed to ask,
is this all there is?

One day he was gone.

From the sweat from his brow
he had spread his smile of pebbles
and I picked them up
one by one.