This is Winter

Cold air bites at my bare fingers,
and tiny flakes of ice flutter down from the bleak, cloudy sky.
Like grains of sand in a hourglass. 

Time slips away in a haze of frigid winds 
and hides beneath a blanket of pale white powder. 

Trees sheathe themselves in coats of ice, 
and seeds borough deeper into their subterranean homes.

Hot chocolate greets rosy cheeked children, 
weary from playing in plies of ice cold clouds.

This is winter.

Animals hunt. 
Crimson blood spilled on white canvas.
A stomach is filled. 

Frozen lakes 
giant tanks, frosted over.
Fish and frogs down bellow.

Rugged mountains 
harsh and unforgiving, 
paint a pretty picture
if you don't live there.

this is winter

stretching on for months 
feigning spring, time after time
till it finally comes.

long ago memories
of hurling snow at each other
and laughing hysterically 
in the cold Christmas weather

this is winter 

Cold on the best of days
glacial on the worst, 
so cold that when you start to warm up again 
it kinda starts to hurt.

This is winter.
This is Vermont.
This is home.

This is winter.

you know, it snowed the day I was born.