The Next Installment in the Ongoing Poem Series About the Winter of 2005

December 7, 2005
Yesterday morning I could see my breath

The first time that’s happened this winter
in spite how cold it’s been the past few weeks
Especially at the start of the walk
as I sipped my hot coffee
each exhalation was
a huge white puff

Your body is hot inside
much warmer inside my lungs and my mouth
than outside
nearly all the time
and certainly in December
but somehow the coffee still makes a difference

By the time I got to work it was much less dramatic
the coffee had gone cold in the cup
or perhaps I’d inhaled enough cold air
by then
to make the difference between my breath and the air
not so great

And the sky was the strangest color
The palest pale blue verging into pale gray
almost no color at all
And this was the actual sky
infinitely faded and remote
not the cloud cover or fog or anything else


image source is here