"Don't you want to make it work?"
I asked
Tears in my eyes
Begging you to stay
Clutching your hand
In desperation
My heart quivering
Fearing the answer
You might give

Nothing ever hurt me
As much as you saying
No
You didn't
You were done

The cold swept in
And took me away
Far far
From you
Because next to you
I was getting
Frost bite

No longer smitten
Just ******
And frost bitten

I am in love with
the winter,
like I am in love
with you.

I am in love with
chills down my spine,
and I am in love with the cruel.

(My heart,
it stays open
only to be frozen,
but nevertheless,
I can breathe.)

I am in love with
the way the snow melts,
a chemical transfer of heat.

I am in love with
the way summer felt,
But winter is bitter, like me.

Our dreams haunted us like winter kisses skin,
The type of linger that often speaks of sin.

It is unforgettable, the atrocities committed that day,
Now Little Samuel has no daddy with whom he can play.

Had we regretted it, upon seeing color leave his face?
We were too preoccupied to think, as, back home we raced.

Now I wonder how long he laid there in the snow,
Due to disturbed children he didn't even know.

i didn't wear my hat, i know
i should have, but i felt rebellious
in some small way, i tried to cheat the day
and paid in tingling pain, sharp aching corners
and a strange sense of pride in my bones warmed me
until just the tips of my ears were left white, dead
yes, dead
but i felt alive

to be in danger and know it, to press on against the cold
to push forward into the wind, though before you is only white
to turn blindly into the storm, to accept the blizzard's strength
to guess what lies ahead in fear and still take the risk
this, to me
is courage

maybe i'm just talking about frostbite like some romantic wound
or maybe we're in danger, you and i
pressing on into the storm despite numbing fingers
smiles frozen, eyes watery
maybe we'll get frostbite in our hearts
but i think it's worth the risk

candlesticks caught up in your wristwatch grip bundled up burning chopsticks not frostbitten yet, flashlight to toes happy it still shows your glowing red interior

I will stand outside
in the cold
for six hours
if it means I get to see you
when all the minutes have passed

Even if that means kissing you
with my frostbitten lips

By Chloe Elizabeth