Listless January, her cheerless
complexion drained of smiles,
ashen hours clumped together
like unwashed hair.
You shiver through her nights
bundled under blankets
clutching at a warmth too frail
to encircle you in its arms.
A blizzard of thought buries you,
shuts down your body and brain
like an abandoned factory.
One cloudless February day
the wheels begin to buzz,
the dead life within you stirs
and starts to thaw.
You wriggle your toes,
stretch out your arms like a great elm
and turn your cheek to the sun.
Face flushed with a splash of springtime,
whippoorwills and daffodils–
you in your high-top sneakers
and a sliver of a grin …