Christmas lights shine bright,
Kissing the pines of the tree,
The first flakes have come.

Brightness comes to me,
Chasing the endless summer,
I am free to roam.

For years, winter was my state of mind.
Vultures used to follow me,
taking scraps of my soul with them.
Their company was not at all bad,
but they whispered promises they could never keep.
An illness fell upon me,
Wrenching at me until I was swallowed whole.
A shift in the universe sunk in.
Walls came down,
Flowers bloomed where there was nothing.
Spring extended its warm greeting,
brushing past the ice and snow.
How did this warmness find me?
To this day, I will never know.

Sunlight pours in through the blinds,
warming the blanket slowly,
binding you to the spot for little while longer.
Time seems irrelevant, pointless, and strange…
Responsibilities of the day call upon you.
You promise to yourself to come shortly,
but the warmth of the blankets is tempting you to stay.
Move your feet, move them slowly at first if you must.
Stardust collected in your eyes last night,
wash it away, begin your day.
Another day as a cog in a machine,
mindlessly moving from one function to the next.
A force pulls you in another direction,
you resist the tug to and endeavor to keep pace.
This has become engrained in your soul.
This person is not me, I swayed from myself a long time ago.
I cannot remember anything,
my eyes no longer sparkle when I speak.

Snowflakes dance against my eyelashes.
The cold wind brings colour to my pale skin.
We arrive on time, catching up briefly as my eyes meet yours.
Time has not changed you,
You are still filled with short quips and philosophical musings.
Your brown eyes melt me like honey.
You speak soft words,
challenge my thinking,
offering a short escape to routine life.
You breeze through every year,
Staying a short while,
then disappearing like summer rain.
Will I see you again?
A smirk, a glance, and a constricting hug.
My senses go numb, and I could stay here awhile.
Comfort is entwined within you.

Every breathe draws me deeper.
The air spikes my lungs with hasty coolness.
There is a stillness to the water that calms me.
Colours paint the leaves with ferocity.
Among the quiet, I notice his apprehension.
His cinder endeavors to stay lit.
Holding on to something that can no longer fester.
The end of the rope has been gnawed almost completely.
The edges frayed from holding on.
The formation of words is lost to me,
All I can offer is silence.