Winter of Memory

winter is a collection of awakenings
slumbers, that both lull and invigorate
raising, dropping, falling deep into the ground
for a moment all is quiet, then alive
in a rustle or a sound, of the wind blowing around us
in the calm that penetrates us
i find reason here, solace from the storms
that rage in the minds around me
that flail around, on the earth i see
in this belief of memory, that i have when i was a child
walking to school in the winter, bundled from head to the ground
i walked, finding a truth in the moment, before school began
or after the school day had gone away
before i could say goodbye, to her now, i watched from my window
wondering just where it all began, and when it might end, in a winter
that reached out, over everything in me

in my memory, the winter stretches out, outward beyond the borders of my mind
i give back, to all those i receive, the intimate moments, when the world did not seem
to go on forever, only forever in the world i could see, here, now
i dress in the old, boots, the old coats of another day, when in my youth
there was a unknown truth, that stirred inside my laughter, that opened my eyes
as youth grew up, in each and every day, i found it all, in a fantasy of playing dragons
and against unseen enemies, in the trenches of the battle, remembering the warmth
of hot chocolate, simmering on the stove, the red burner awakening itself from
slumber, just as i, just as the winter around me spoke, with snow falling to the earth
i would come in from the wars, come in from the play
slowly stripping the layers away, revealing what i could, in all my exhaustion
in my exhilaration still in my flight, of this fantasy i had, as i held that sled nice and tight
flying down the mountain top, the world skipping by me, in a blur, in a rapture of cold bitter air
dancing, i drove down the mountain, down the perils, rocks and jumps
past the others who had fallen, past the others who got lost, i held tight and drove on
into the night, for when i awoke, i found myself changed, different, older
a new man, completely rearranged, as the mirror spoke to me, just as the seasons did with change
each season turned, and i hoped this winter would be snowy, be colder all over again
no matter where i am, where you are, i can still dream up a world, build it up from the snow
piled here and from there, build a world from the dreams still left, somewhere in my memory