Seasonal

The cold makes me yearn for the love of near strangers

Seasonal


I refuse to spend this winter
With you not on my side.

I tasted it today
Colder and drier and meaner
As always

Than the friends who ceased to know me
When it hit.
My feet against the frigid tile,
Hostility

Of an inescapable brand
Because exposure
Is nearly unworkable now
And it's all
I've ever needed.

And yet I seem to think that
Maybe
Severed this way from the herd
(Both yours and mine respectively)
It will be easier for us
In desperation
To f a l l
In line
You and I

Walking stiffly
As mandated by the weather;
Holding bones together
In a seasonally outward manifestation
Of the perennial condition
Of our insides.

And so I wish for longer winters
As I bury myself deeper,
Menaced by the commonplace,
Trying not to shatter.

I dive deeper into thoughts of you
And one day,
I insist,
The reality of you
So we may jointly greet the Spring
And I may find motive
In the barren grey
That bites
And binds me tighter
Every day.