In the frosty fields of night
They thought they hid their sins

Buried
Low beneath the ice
Buried deep below the snow

In the waking silence
I found my breath

My lungs ripped and pulled —
gasp — after gasp —
Pleading only to choke

Dirt!
Solid, filling, heavy
Killing

Filling my chest by lung
Crushing my hope in pressure

My hands work frantic
as buckets, rakes, and hatchets
Beseeching the Earth to open

A prayer seems lost
in this desolate darkness
of endless soil

As fear and panic subside
acceptance and frostbite
cascade over me like an endless sea

One last sigh-
I relinquish all to the Mother
Whose frozen embrace will keep me still

Maybe sins are better left buried