I

Frigid snow falling so gracefully,

constantly builds up over time.

Cold, heavy; as the roots

of the trees shrivel, look outside

and see summer. Warm, friendly, alive.

Winter only kills what summer had taken so long

to nurture. The plants, the animals, the people thrive

in summer.

It’s barely July and there’s snow,

it’s already unbearable. Meanwhile, long lost friends

drift away together in their sunny warmth.

They avoid the winter.

Summer, no matter how desirable,

always breaks away; it’s unattainable.

If the warmth of summer could be bought,

it’s too expensive, anyway. If growing

older would lead to summer, it still feels beyond reach.

There’s no medicine that can eradicate this.

No travel can escape the

separation between the seasons.

It’s easy to pretend

summer is there.

But when they know

about the perpetual winter,

they drift even farther away

with their distant mimicry echoing,

pounding eardrums.

Summer can only be faked

for so long,

until the ice beneath comes

out.

Soon enough a winter storm will rise,

and the thick white blanket will suffocate

everything beneath.

The light, frozen flakes bury any evidence of a summer.

Sky blue and forest green hues suddenly revert

into the grays and whites.

Colorless.

Motionless.

Lifeless.

Footprints in the snow,

deep and without regard,

leave eternal marks of those

who have gone,

just as everyone is gone in the winter.

There is no trace of anyone, but the patterned oval,

it remains

as a sign of damage to the once so pure snow.

And once the temperature drops,

the snow is hardened,

harder to melt.

Once the temperature drops,

hypothermia sets in.

Once the temperature drops,

summer will never come back.

Just as a dream flashes in an instant,

summer eludes those who dream

of its ribbon someday wrapping around them.

Just as the friends drift

and the blood red on the thermostat

decreases,

the footprints freeze over,

the impure white so tainted.

Someday, perhaps, the arctic storm will pass.

As for now, winter is internal,

but hoping for summer,

trapped under the ice.