Gift to my Readers

As a gift to my readers and followers, I have a poem for you. I hope you find peace this holiday season. Peace may not come in the form of a world without conflict. Sometimes, it is a place of shelter while the storm rages around us.

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Melting Winter’s Heart

 

Perfectly-formed icicles lace

the tree in my front yard, adorning

the branches like Christmas tree ornaments.

 

Standing before the tree, I gape

at the baubles, but cringe

when I see the refracted light creating

rainbows of memories of my lost loves.

The prisms mirror my despair within

their icy depths.

 

Every year I come out to see my

lost loves frozen in the moment

I last gazed upon their faces.

Unchanging.

The pain,

unchanged.

 

I hear frost crackle and snap as it races across

my chest, painfully slowing my heart

and restricting my breath.

 

There are more paralyzed memories than last year,

and I wonder how the trinkets always find their

way to my tree. As if I need to see them

to remember what I’ve lost.

 

I snatch one from the branches, which

gives it up with a shudder, and smuggle

it inside the house within the folds of my coat.

 

I collapse next to the fire, and

remove my layers until the

frozen fragment rests in my palm.

The chill burns my hand, but I

grip it tighter.

 

The heat from the fire calms my mind.

The frost from the ornament melts

to tears. I feel them running down

my hands and my face. My heart

palpitates, racing out of fear, but

I won’t look away from my trinket

that starts roaring like the fire. The

flames lick at my skin and dry

the drops of salty water.

 

A warmth rushes through me, chasing

away the chill that’s haunted me

for years. Laughter fills the air, I

remember the joy this bauble, this love,

brought me and the surprise of it

bubbles up and dances with the crackle

of the fire.

 

I rise and twirl and sing

holding my love close

to my heart. The shadows

of my sorrow slink away

and I am free to remember

the glow of our memories without

the cobwebs of sadness.

 

I place the trinket,

now resembling a brilliant star,

atop the Christmas tree

next to the fireplace where I can gaze

upon it and feel the warmth

of the life we once shared.

 

Maybe next year,

I’ll bring in another.