snow banks

 pink-blue—golden fading light

  of a frozen winter’s dusk

loud footstepping crunch of crystalline 

  snow gets brittle if it’s cold enough

hands turning purple and freezing

  alternating left hand, right hand

realizing too late 

i forgot

Not this place, nor how to get 

  (here’s where I should turn around)

light’s fading quicker than

  the ache in my hands suggest

This is all the further I can

  go anywhere but her(e)

(at least it’s warm there)

each body an inferno waiting

  all you have to do

Choose to use what you’ve always

  having choices means 

What if I’m wrong and I get

  loosing yourself in the shrinking dusk

a frozen smile as the last glinting 

embrace of the sun slinks

  behind that grey cloud and

below these grey-brown branches

They’re not dead

  & neither are you.