Boy at the Window

                 Seeing the snowman standing all alone
                 In dusk and cold is more than he can bear.
                 The small boy weeps to hear the wind prepare
                 A night of gnashings and enormous moan.
                 His tearful sight can hardly reach to where
                 The pale-faced figure with bitumen eyes
                 Returns him such a God-forsaken stare
                 As outcast Adam gave to paradise.
                
                 The man of snow is, nonetheless, content,
                 Having no wish to go inside and die.
                 Still, he is moved to see the youngster cry.
                 Though frozen water is his element,
                 He melts enough to drop from one soft eye
                 A trickle of the purest rain, a tear
                 For the child at the bright pane surrounded by
                 Such warmth, such light, such love, and so much fear.
                
                 ~Richard Wilbur