Cement walls press closer to imploding
Artificial lights glare down like silent sentries.
A restlessness lives inside
A desire to reach tentative leaves up
To flecks of sunlight that float by the window from time to time

No more slush lines the sidewalks
The cold has gone in-and-out, in-and-out too many times to leave anything reminiscent of a season

I don’t plan anymore
Walk with no destination
Outside the earth has thawed
And the air is calling

There is a comfort in frozenness
A steady rhythm
Hearts don’t race
Or skip a beat
Or almost jump out of your throat because your face is soaked in sun and your music is loud and the world is alive
Under the ice is calm and crystalline

I sit among muted pastels
My mind running circles
I stare out closed windows
At reflections I can almost reach

The winterglaze is peeling
Shards of hope in turning shades of green
This drowsy Pennsylvania winter is bursting at the seams
Pieces of pink sky and garden-small seeping in
Anticipation

But cold is persistent
Winds bite
And the earth still dresses herself in gray and brown
Exhaustion dampens the days, and it goes on—
coffeeworksleep
We burrow deeper into our holes

Outside the shutters, the clouds are drifting
Under the concrete, the ground is softening
Inside the looming skeletons, the leaves are growing
Above our wool-covered ears, a solitary sparrow pokes its head out and starts to sing

When the sky splits
And rain pours down
I try something new

I open my window and let it in