Never Even Here
You have a crystal heart In a carbon cage Ribs of branches And eyes of sage Leaves creak beneath Tepid steps On blistered feet Into the midday That looks more like night A huddled mass of dense gray overhead Chokes out all the light The mumblings of the river bed Seem to speak your name And in this claustrophobic expanse Every landmark looks the same Smell the smoke from somewhere Pulling from the ground and rising in the air It hangs on your lungs like a fur coat Winter. Hunger. And the beginnings of Despair. Keep moving Keep walking Break the ice off frigid limbs Keep hoping Keep talking Through the woods and whipping winds Each breath explodes and falls away Snapped twigs get lost and tramped Dropped items drift with each wind blow And every single boot print you've stamped Disappears beneath the heavy snow