you left in the evening assorted layers your lone protection against nights so cold even the snow glistens restlessly beneath streetlight and moonlight on the tar of the road you sought your soul as though an angel searching the feeling of flesh and I wondered how night looked through barren trees and winter laden fields Orion shining beneath a quick silver moon thought of that first breath of air filling your lungs with its cold tendrils of want as you took to waiting a soldier of fortune as time stands in passing like the warriors who have all gone before winter does that leaves us wanting a January thaw waiting for ice flows on rivers to crack against the weight of the sun yearning for the stag to wander into the sight of a bow as your soul slips into your body at last at home in the reflection of obsession’s obsidian eyes