The silence that stood between two bodies
took an eternity to settle.
When it settled, it settled like snow.
I will carry my silence this winter,
and maybe when it gets too heavy, we can stop,
and rest for a while. It is a very long season.

We use this quiet nicely.
Short days entail choosing your words carefully,
speaking less, listening more, cleaning mirrors and
unclogging the sinks. We sit avoiding the cold,
drinking herbal tea and watching steam rise from our mugs.
We take long baths, do the laundry,
and clutter our bed-stand with pills and medicine bottles.
We brush snow from our shoulders,
and learn to breath in spite of the cold, and each other.

In the winter, we begin to learn
what is simple and necessary;
Antihistamines, hot soups, staying warm in the house.
We allow winter’s silence to drift down
and gather like frost on our floors.
I think about moving often,
abandoning our home while the earth stays frozen.

To leave in the winter is unnatural.
Movement breaks its stillness and hold,
an impossible infidelity to the past, to others,
to old notions of oneself.
Leaving someone in the snow shatters
the heavy silences carried over long months,
breaking the spell to end all spells.
It is a necessary betrayal,
a declaration that things can be not only different
but better, as we open our front doors
and step out into spring.