Chill Temp

Chill temp  1/7/2014

A cold swirling vortex

Freezes my skeleton

Exposed under the flesh

Solid, dead, and numb.

The blackened fingers

Of dead trees

Stretch out empty

And crack in the wind.

The ground is white and gray

Crinkling under my feet

As I work my way backwards

Across the field.

The blackbirds sit in a row

On a line

Waiting for something

Or someone. 

The ghosts are here

And they laugh at me

Unafraid and flying

High above my reach. 

The frozen water

Expands and pops

Cracking like glass

In a crystal mosaic.

I am alone in my thoughts

As carefully pick my steps

An alien in a strange world

Uninhabited and dead.

The barking dog

Gets the bone

And now they all bark

And bite like beasts.

Even in the cold

The wolves are hungry

And even in the streets

They scavenge

And wait.

Soulless, pitiless,

Remorseless, and savage

Unable to survive

Without blood and death.

When you look around

You can see more than you think

As the howls escalate

And the massacre begins.

I am not afraid

Because I know what to do

For even the most ferocious animal

Can be beaten back 

If you fight hard. 

Be not disheartened

Though the day turn to night

And remain upright

Even when 

You are accused.

For the man who does not flinch

Need not fear

Neither persecution

Nor death. 

Others are tempted to run

And some are intentionally blinded

Because they were never meant to see

And can never know. 

Condemned long ago

They will persist in their evil

Even to the end

Snarling and snapping. 

Cold and cruel is the sky

But inside the fires burn

Warming the good

No matter what remains.