The Winter

Pale and beckoning
In my dreams again
Reaching out
A china hand
Touching fingertips
Veiled consequence of making a bargain with the dead

I feel nearer
When I lay my bones to sleep
Solemn and delivered
Broken but at peace

Fragile betrayal in shades of white
Bound, tied, bathed in light
Yet cold and grey
Buried down there in the clay

Void and desolate
Crumbling ashen lips whisper secrets to the wind
Bloodied fingernails tear to no avail
Entangled in roots beneath the snow

She seems clearer
In the icy ground beneath
Silent and unyielding
Shattered but complete

Fragile betrayal in shades of white
Bound, tied, bathed in light
Yet cold and grey
Buried down there in the clay

Time and suffering won’t change the four feet of earth between me and the spring
I buried the sun and salted the ground in hiding the warmth where it won’t be found

I still hear her moth-flutter heartbeat as it disappeared
Underneath the bruise-black expression of all that I fear

Fragile betrayal in shades of white
Bound, tied, bathed in light
Yet cold and grey
Buried down there in the clay