Winter

It’s not the cold I fear but what it brings

The sky lowers as a curtain

Cleans the streets emptier than my heart

Blank roads

Silent squares

No friends, no laughter, no music

My fingers rub together alone

Touching nothing

Every hour is 4 AM

Birds show unconcern but do not stay

Twitch, twist, turn away

Smell the trackless fall of

Snow invisible, soft and wet

Creatures of air

Smaller than breath

Grown from dust and bats

Our wordy sighs spirit their ships

To inner swamps of sea and mist

Where they hook home

Curdling our blood and chilling bone

Freeze us in their embrace

Burning brains white

Forcing minds to see what minds can’t make

Only partake

Those we most love

Speed their cool rise

Our cold ends

I will pray for fresh stars

Constellations of spring

Stunning the clock to a new hour

We must still carve its hands

But they will mark a new time