Winter’s Chill – Christine E. Ray

winter settles
into my bones
making itself
at home
cold steals silent
stealthy under doorways
seeps through
small cracks
in my armor
seeking firm purchase
conspiring to steal my warmth
chilling my nose
toes
fingertips
flat gray December skies
speak of snow
a flurry
or a blizzard?
I wonder
days grow short
nights grow long
sleep as evasive
as a child playing
hide and seek in
a many roomed
Victorian house
full of small nooks
hidey-holes
darkness feels endless
unrelenting
I worry
Winter’s frost
is blooming
over delicate tissue
of my heart
blood
slow and sluggish
crystallizing
on my soul
encasing me
entombing me
under thick
sheets of ice
muffling my voice
my will
I fight to resist
encroaching winter
mournful twilight
but I am so isolated
so small
in this icy landscape
skeletal trees
reaching to grasp
my sleeves
frozen puddles of hard mud
crunching under
frozen feet
I seek a lantern
on the horizon
a bright red cardinal
to break up this
bleak
endless white
tundra