Blackout

[tectak]

Edit 2:


Reading by firelight
in a huddled mass of blankets,
a family sits together. No one disagrees...the imagery is just fine. The stanza is weakened, though, by the  global inversion. What is more important to the image? The family huddled together in a mass of blankets...in front of a warm fire...reading. What you have done is invert the primary image and bring the secondary in to pole position. This is sometimes a deliberate device to "build" a picture, but as an opening stanza, for this reader, it fails by cadentic steps. What you mean to say is open now to specultion. "A family sits together, huddled in a mass of blankets, reading by firelight." Works for me. No meter, no matter...
 
The dogs yawn echoes quietly over the storm; How many dogs? Two, three, four?
perhaps that explains the improbable echo of a yawn over a storm...the dogs are yawning in  induced sequence....yawns do that. Oh, hang on. Only ONE yawn. Hmmm. Only one dog then. Missing echo is one thing, missing apostrophe is two or more.Proof read.
outside, snow and wind tangle ...you are correct. The comma after outside. Otherwise there are two kinds of snow. The outside snow and...er...the inside kind. Sorry, mustn't crit the crit...no name mentioned....you know who you are.
grids of power into knots of wire. This is one of those images that only a mother could love. I kind of like what I see but not as much as you do....and it should be the other way round. I think it is caused by the disconnect from the drowsy, homey, cosy talk, to the linesman for the county jargon. Grids? Power? Wire? Hell, I was just nodding comfortably off ...now I need to go out, in this storm, lose my page, trip over the dog in the dark and start the generator....all because there was a spike load causing a cascade power outtage of the 13.2 kv transformer sub-station overload trips. Sheeesh.
 
In a cave beyond town,
sleeping bears cuddle. Well, awwwwww. OK. It's a wrap. I think you will get more praise than piss-taking for this.....and quite right, too. A very fine contra. Worthy. It was close, though.

Hello and a tentative well done. Edits work like honing a knife. Once it's sharp, stop grinding away....
Best,
tectak

Edit 1:

Reading by firelight

in a huddled mass of blankets,
a family sits together.
 
The dogs yawn echoes quietly
over the sound of the storm.
Outside, snow and wind tangle
grids of power into knots of wire.
 
In a cave beyond town,
sleeping bears cuddle

Original:

Reading by firelight
in a huddled mass of flesh,
the family dogs yawn echoes peace.
 
Outside, snow and wind tangle
grids of power into knots of wire.
 
In a cave outside town,
sleeping bears cuddle as usual.