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grace

Ode to Winter


Startled by the clinking of

Your mug upon the table,

A certain look deep in your eyes

I find I cannot label.


Snow is falling gently,

And night is falling too,

And to this day three years ago

Was when I fell for you.


Your beat-up dusty pickup truck

Was packed with skies and poles,

We were on the road for hours

Chatting of life’s joys and woes.


Snowflakes kissed the windshield

As we hit two hundred miles,

My fingers on your lips

Turned them both into a smile.


Silence for a moment

Then I play our favorite song,

Bon Iver, sweet siren music,

Ghostly in the dawn.


No more towns or houses,

Just mountains, fields and moor,

Suddenly you slow, then stop,

Then open your side door.


You beckon me to follow

So I step into the snow,

Your footsteps are in front of me

The wind behind me blows.


Through thickets and a meadow

We trudge deeper through the white,

I’m no longer afraid because

We’ve left behind the night.


Your finger to your lips,

You look over your shoulder,

You crouch and beckon me to sit

Behind a great gray boulder.


Slowly our heads rise above

Our temporary fort,

It’s quite cold and our breath

Makes wispy smoking clouds of sorts.


And now a smaller cloud,

As we softly both exhale,

A family of moose is there

Stock still but flicking tails.


The babe begins to play,

Father gently nuzzles mum,

I look over startled

As you softly start to hum.


The moose don’t seem to notice

Or particularly care,

So you sing a little louder

Touch my ears and face and hair.


That day we never made it

To the famous skiing town,

Instead we held each other close,

We laid each other down.


A memory I’ll cherish

Till they put me in the ground,

I saunter back to present day,

Eventually come ‘round.


Before me is the same face

I see clearly in my mind,

It doesn’t look much different

Than three years ago, I find.


As if to reassure me

That you’ll never let me go,

You start to sing that same song

That you sang me in the snow.

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