Even my breath
Is brittle,
Hanging in the air
Briefly,
Then shattering
Into crystals
To disappear.
Wind drifted
Snow obscures
Yesterday,
A single set
Of tracks wanders
Through reeds
Rustling with
The cold.
I pull my hood
Over my frosted
Hat,
As the sun
Blushes the horizon.
Flashback 1994
I had booked your
Inside passage,
Billed as having
Window and doors,
Sunlight and balconies
With views.
Rolling clouds might
Gather across the
Trackless waves,
Overtake and threaten
To push us windward,
But they would pass.
Your inside passage became
A maze,
Fun house mirrors,
Dead ends,
And lies.
I left you sitting
On your fence,
Muttering something
About independence,
And self-reliance,
And failure.
Time has left you
Bow-legged,
Perched on your fence
In disillusionment,
Muttering something about
Impending death, regrets,
And reconciliation.
I have gathered my
Army,
We circle as always,
Gazing through windows,
And doors,
Together.
January 31
A coy moon
Slips behind
The veil,
Moved by
hands unseen.
Slowly it sinks
Toward the trailing
Edge of the night,
A traveler set
To a singular groove.
The newly fallen
Blanket of snow
Gets creased and
Battered by
The morning rush,
Most oblivious to
The magic in the sky.
Silently I watch,
Migrating through
Fox tracks left
In the unmasked moonlight.
The rosy edges slide
Past the horizon,
Just as the sun breaks
It’s opposite.
January 30
I woke up
Upside down.
A twist of
Blankets and
Half-off socks.
Opening my eyes
Didn’t make “them”
Disappear.
In my dream they were many,
Probing with questions,
Insisting on answers
That didn’t exist
In either time or
Space.
The fullness of the
Moon lights my way
To feet on the floor.
Your answers will never
Be found,
And I will often
Wonder where
You really
Came from.
January 29; Circle Pines
The forecast calls
For cold.
You wake me in
The dark of very
Early morning,
Just a tickle
Of whiskers on the
Foot flung from
Beneath the covers.
Irrational exuberance
Leads us out the door,
Through the crusted snow,
And pauses to be washed
With moonlight.
Inside we go,
Circling around the
Sofa at warp speed.
You dash down breakfast,
And after one more blitzkrieg
Circling,
Snooze
Until the sun comes up
And we venture out
Again.
January 28
I stand in the
Pouring rain
At the middle of
The field,
Waiting for the
Deluge to obliterate
My tears,
Thunder to iron
Flat their history,
Rendering them
Meaningless and
Mundane.
Yet I am dreaming,
The smallest
Of flakes drift
Through the single digit
Morning,
Tingling against my
Face.
I crinkle as I smile,
And embrace where
I am.
January 26
You came from
Thin air,
Pulled from between
The breaths of
The woods.
Settling on trees,
You frosted the world
With hope and
Possibility.
I only glimpsed you briefly,
Called out into the quiet
Darkness at hours
Mostly vacant.
By morning you had
Left,
Scattering on the crusted
Snow like diamonds.
Still, I felt
The world had
Changed,
And my place in it
Shifted.
January 24
Light plays
Across treetops,
Singing in registers
Only heard in the
Earliest hours of morning.
Long shadows etched in
Frost move with
The advancing breeze.
I grasp the brief
Communal,
Holding it close
Before it slips
Away,
Replaced by those
Pressing and insistent
Lists of whom to be
And what to do
That mark most
Of my
Days.
January 23
Pain gets
Hidden,
Like spring,
Under a thick
Blanket of snow.
The fingers of
The wind carve
Safe places
Around the artifacts
Of past summer,
Spaces for lives
To be lived
And saved.
Seeking shelter
Takes all that
We have,
And the spaces
Are too few
And far between.
January 22
The forecast
Hangs over our
Heads like an
Unmade decision.
Colored blobs
Of radar advance
And retreat at
Whim.
Two inches,
Six inches,
Ten to twelve.
As the creaking
Trees bend with
The bluster
Of wind,
We wait.