You -
arising from the snowbound stream
like a willow, encased
in taut winter skin.
This other skin frozen into an arctic gown
or a shroud
floating
over pink naked flesh.
Opening your mouth
through wreathes of breath,
screaming: “HOOOOOOOOOYAH!”
Ice-slicked, crystallized curls thrown back
sauna-birthed
out of December’s gestation
your steaming newborn self.
You —
plunging into
water so cold
could not, at first, separate
bones and blood from
its’ zeroed embrace.
Heart pausing,
tremulous, uncertain—hot human
magma coagulating in its cage
of stunned ribs,
flash-frozen,
turned again into frigid fire.
You —
slim, white sword unsheathed
being tempered through
glacial baptism,
leaden chill
creeping mercury that
heart and blood
so easily become.
You —
vaulting up through frigid scrims
of ice,
screaming your silver breath,
the last heat
human furnace and bellows release.
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