winter
She builds me a home,
                  made fire
says, “arctic air holds high pressure.”
at night, she lets me rest my head on her chest -
I stretch my arms across her
 I don’t touch her
I feel her.
 no sales tax
no merchandise
no fancy fast          new, or  nice
car.
 I don’t want her;
I need her
 See,
She says frostbite,
hypothermia,
    what alternates from light & dark,
will kill me
Brief
  Defrosting.
That’s what she does.
 “Take
   Caution.”
That’s what she says.
But I always venture back outdoors.
and at night, when I return with a cold, she does not say,
“I told you so.”
she does not turn me away
 just builds another home,
                  made fire
she’ll ask me to stay -
says she knows how hard it is to breathe at negative degrees;
“it’s a blizzard out there,”
She’ll say
“but I’m your winter coat and the layers in between”Â
takes my numb hands; grabs my numb nose
 “you deserve so much
nothing less –”
