Homeland Winter

Let's close our coats
And zipper it up to our lips
To ward the cold air blowing;
To keep warm our souls
To the bluster and weight of
This dry, frigid mass.

It's winter in the Homeland.

Let's try and steal extra moments
Of bold, lucid sunshine
In these dead times;
Relish in impractical folly
As the days drag on
Deaf to pleading sanity.

This Homeland winter's long.

With it go the songs
And the street scene exchanges
Of passing looks and thoughts
And possible celebrations of passion,
And love and unbridled compassion.
Life is all but dead and barren.

How cold the Homeland winter.

We forgot to pack away
Our cotton-thread notions
For the warm winter vestments
And cashmere stoles of doctrinaire assent.
Our natural thoughts like tears fall,
Freeze and shatter on hard icy ground.

I long for Homeland winter's end.

(2008)