Wild Winter

I and I

We crook our backs

Wearing only winter

Our faces bright as childhood

With a jump

Borne by wings

Arms upstretched

We break the sky

Curtailing ripples

In a faithless leap

Fear admonishes

A mother voice

– won’t you wear

Your threadbare coat

Your grandpa shirt

Thick with despite

Your cardigan

With holes like love

In sleeves and pockets

Where thumbs laugh

For paint and games

Of coloured glass

Hiding totems

And small curled hands

I brace the sun

On my back

Like a weight, a confirmation

Mother, I have a sudden fear

On the wind

Your lost voice

The sun has made

My forehead shining wet

I have lost my patchwork kite

To an angry, ugly sky

Spars all broken

Still it flies

Tail curling

I walk from here to there

Clawed by winds

Going nowhere

Uncertain what I lost

But, in return

Bearing wild winter in my eyes