Tuesday, 3 July 2012

Snow,
winking with frost,
has smothered all.
Winter’s sharp fingers
pierce my flesh 
and my mouth is a broken,
rusted gate.
I feel the soft warmth of fire
you lie beside,
and see you cradling your
kicking stomach.
But glass wind surrounds me,
breath bleeds from my lungs.
Each wet
step sinks
beneath
the bone-white
surface
and cold draws me
nearer,
whispering sleep in my ear.
Then a faint thud thud
          numbs the silence,
     though.
           It grows
                  thud thud
                it grows.
                       A blinkered shire horse
                                                                    emerges,
                      trudging alone,
                                                    slowly.
                                                                   Its leather harness
      sags behind,
                                   scraping the floor as it
                                                                                clears a path.
     Its mane twitches
                                           like long grass,
 its muscles,
                                   like pistons,
                                                                         judder as I reach out,
  and,
                     as I follow behind,
                                                                  the wind still rages
         and the cold still
                                             pinches
                                                                but something
                 swells
                                       like a womb inside. 


Published in The Æolian Revue

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