Shadow Play

image borrowed by bing

Shadow Play

“Alas! Must it ever be so? Do we stand in our own

light, and fight for our own shadows forever?

---Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton

Today, Punxatawney Phil, the “seer of seers”,

(supposedly) awakened from his winter slumber

and emerged bright-eyed from his burrow

at Gobbler’s Knob and made his 127th

prognostication--and after not seeing 

his shadow, predicted that spring (might)

come early this year. 

Performing this feat in front of 20,000 people,

this being the weekend--many of them

wearing top hats & tuxedos.

There is a seamless thread for this sacrement

to other animal predictions of the weather,

stretching back across the shoulders of centuries;

tied to the Romans, and the Catholic ceremony

of Candlemass. The early Germans decided

to use the European hedgehog as prophet--

when a large population of Germanic folks

first settled into Pennsylvania, they found

a profusion of groundhogs, so the honors

were lovingly transfered to a new rodent.

In 1886, Phil was first called Br-er Groundhog,

and they relocated the ceremony to the Knob

in 1887. Like Superman & Lassie, Phil is ageless.

There are, of course, several usurpers out there

coveting his notoriety & throne. 

Staten Island Chuck in New York State.

General Beauregard Lee in Atlanta, &

Wiarton Willie up north in Ontario.

“They are all just rodent pretenders”

reported the Inner Circle.

Phil has been manipulated by media whores

for decades, and he seemed content with this;

During Prohibition, he threatened 60 more weeks

of winter if he couldn’t get a stiff drink.

In 1958, after Sputik & Muttnik, he was dubbed

the official United States Chucknik.

In 1981 he wore a yellow ribbon to honor

the American hostages in Iran.

In 1993 he starred in a movie with Bill Murray.

In 1995 he appeared on the Oprah Show.

It is said that Phil is never “wrong”

with his predictions, just sometimes

“less accurate secondary to freak circumstances”.

That sounds too much like the incessant patter

I used to hear from my stepfather.

Glenn Buttkus

February 2013

Posted over on dVerse Poets-poetics

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