Winter Poem by Marea Johnson

Bundling you up
like a baby
Your Pooh scarf
hugging your neck-

We roll you out
into the
winter's night
to take
our usual trip.

We arrive -
only to wait.

Clouds of mist
flow from my mouth
as I tell you
how much I love you.

I become five
when you are
like this.

I pull
your blankets
tighter around you
as if to put off
the inevitable.

You are
more
beautiful
than

the
rain

the
icicles

the snow.

I have but
one of you.

You are my past.

My present.

My future.

My world.

I do not know then
that I will lose you
to the long battle
you have fought
so valiantly.

It would only be later
that I would learn
that we would never
spend another
winter night

together-

in silence

speaking to each other

through our eyes.

A moment in winter-

frozen in time.



For my beautiful mother Virginia.

I miss you mommy. 1943~2008


~Marea E. Johnson