this winter i am alone but you are somehow still everywhere i am
i walk, hunched shoulders against the howl, down
icy sidewalks where no one would catch me if i fell and
somewhere in the rush of that cold and the bricks
is your name, somewhere between home and the vacuous hiss
of snow around my ears is the timbre of your voice

this winter i am present but still somehow you pull on me
away from what this is, the ease of connection to one's body when
knees and biceps and cheeks all tremble together
in the bitter wind, i have lost the ability to speak back
to the rhythm of my blood when you take me so by surprise:
on every streetcorner, a flickering lamp of your heartbeat