the chilled winter night's embrace
leaves crystalline flecks
around the edges of my nose -
you smile.
the dust of snow covers the sky
in a canopy of ashen gray,
enveloping us within its
soft, sleepy light.
i blush, wiping my sleeve
across my face.
in the distance, the brutish
scrape of shovel plows
splits the snowy sea in two -
like the zipper of your jacket.
i trace the small embroider'd
fowl with a frozen fingertip,
and your smile widens.
it has been long, the time
that stretched between us;
it has been hard.
and though suns
and sunlit moons
have filled and fallen,
this place we've returned
fills us with familiarity.
i reach out my hand to
take back what i had
gone so long without.
your hand stops mine.
as you lean in close,
i can feel the warmth of your breath
as it blossoms from your purple
lips and dissipates in
the space between us.
suddenly, your shivering mouth
is pressed against mine.
i know not quite how to
place in words what happened next -
though it seemed that there was
an exchange of our hearts,
from one chest to the next.
and all inside that moment,
a feeling indistinct
scattered throughout me,
as though the rust of cogs
in a filthy, weathered clock
flaked apart and began to
churn again -
as though things had all
at once picked up just where
they had been suspended.
and when i opened my eyes to
see you staring up at me,
i smiled, and you smiled also -
because what we saw was
us, and nothing else.