Winter Walk

The white cold burned
I couldn't remember
When I did not ache with the peculiar sensation

I looked down at my feet
And then realized
That no footsteps were behind
And I knew not what direction to take

I just stared, unblinking, into the white
I no longer felt the sting of the cold
My eyelashes and lips
Both an ethereal blue, tinged purple

I looked like death's pale horse
Riderless, directionless and very very much alone

My mind was sluggish
Refusing to function beyond breathing
But I began to walk anyway, and my body simply followed

Footsteps that made no sound
Giant trees covered in white
Softly falling cold, covering any sign of my journey

Icicles, gently rocked by the wind
Making a laughing, chiming, tinkling noise
I looked up, and for the first in a long string of moments
I actually SAW the world

All the dormant potential
The pain of growth in the spring
Explosion of life in the summer
And the screeching halt of fall

Something seemed to warm me
Just the tiniest bit, the smallest corner of myself
I was so very cold, that it burned with white intensity

Then, it was out of control
Instead of continuing its slowly warming glow
It lashed out with explosive force
And I screamed in pain, without ever making a sound

I couldn't take this much more
For how long would I allow this to happen?
But I knew, that I would push on
And forever be a part of that winter
No matter how cold it got
Or how the sparks would flare and burn
I would stolidly plod along, eternal