Ice Elation

I awake and find you– same hard-knuckled rapping
Of deadened boughs wind-stormed against the pane–
Perched, insolent and knowing, on my mind’s sill,

Preoccupied with your thumb, some crumpet-crumb
Or, heaven help us, the pungent remains
Of an amorous trophy. How’d you sneak past

All those cobwebs, I wonder? I’ll make coffee,
Wipe the snot from my eyes and try and find
Some semblance of myself. Yes, you. You’re here,

And I’ll really have to make my way over, now,
Won’t I? You’re tired of trailing crumbs, I’m
Ready to reach, in a fever to fly. Bedroom

Adventures are no fun in solitary.
What would I pour you from my hand? Respect,
Love, unity– a piece of my mind. I’ll slide

It under your door, mouse elbows and gizzards,
For a caress of fur, and half a pill. Pouring
Coffee, I blink back the blank tablets, the paper

Pads bare as winter boughs, those accusing margins.
I’ve been preoccupied, this solar recession
Wiped me out like the forest with its banks of green;

Now, spendthrift debtors all, we just make do.
I’ll lean on you. I’ll make candy. I’d clothe
The woods in it too, but we’ll woo them the while

In wreaths of music, for trance is regal riches.
Four to the floor, a polar pulse, we’ll sway
In hip gnosis. Liquid magnets, we kiss in air,

And I, red-nosed, will submit to your every clause.
Next Thursday. But for now, I have Bjork
And half a jar of instant. I’ll hold the fjord,

While you, glacial gracious, sparkle and wait.
Winds, bear my text, and for this errand, you’ll see
Me bare my careless midriff to the solstice dawn.