James Friedman
What Winter Taught Me
Winter Taught Me Well
The raindrops that wrestle my soul free from the cracks
That make me shiver
That make me run into the wind
Directionless
That plant in me the will to abandon
The folly
If only to abandon the pain
But
It’s not enough for me to stop moving
Not enough to keep me here
Raindrops
That paint the hunger in the silence
Like the sounds of passing cars and chatter just out of earshot
Of flickering neon and streetlight incandescence Cadences swimming along in the light
Illuminating the alleyway beyond that theater that you can only associate warm memories with
This is your home
Where the grass lives to kiss your ankles
The wind billows to deliver you to the warm arms that await you
Somewhere
Life finicky, yet cheerful to receive you
But you can’t feel it now
Only the rain