it left one night
when the wind was unusually heavy
and the air was biting cold
it is brutal this high
in late December

I felt it go
making it's way down the hall
and lingering at the door
for an unusually long period of time
I cared not that the snow was deep
and the wood was thick
the whispers of your fleeing love
could not be heard above the deafening roar
of Winter in these mountains
I stopped to listen or to see something,
anything between the gusts and the landing flakes

I had been gone an unusually long time
as you watched from the bedroom window
by the time you made the call
after finishing your coffee
the tears had long since frozen to my skin
and my pleas had long since echoed down the valley