Behold! that drawing in of breath a minty entanglement of starlit senses How they curl like the opposite of smoke over the very insides of my earthen throat crackle of autumnal breezes whooshing through like a beacon And in that split-second right before deep freeze my molecules rise and fall in the rhythm of snowflakes each one a unique entity dusting the solid soil with loamy richness and simultaneous feather impressions of relief Now like silk draped alabaster I am cooled Like sweet river water I flow rocked by the slow churn of growing freedom that alights my pores arises in tender stillness through the looming forests of my skin penetrates the unseen journey of my night as demulcent and persistent as the balmy petals of a raging, fiery bloom