Between Frost and Bloom

The lake is thin with silver lines

Cracking softly under light

Winter loosens in slow time

Breathing into almost bright

You were quiet like the snow

Falling where I could not go

We were distant, close and cold

Hands half reaching, never bold

In the hush of evening blue

I still felt the shape of you

Not as ache, not as flame

More like warmth without a name

Somewhere between frost and bloom

I begin to leave the room

Not to lose what we have been

But to let the light come in

It is gentle, it is slow

Like the melting of the snow

Not a fire breaking through

Just a softer shade of blue

February on my skin

Air that shifts from sharp to thin

Every breath a quiet sign

That the dark is not all mine

I don’t push the past away

It dissolves in shades of gray

Every memory remains

But it no longer chains

Piano falling clear and low

Like water learning how to flow

Each note rising through the air

Undoing what was frozen there

In the silence left behind

I can feel a different kind

Of love that does not have to stay

To light the edges of my day

Somewhere between frost and bloom

I begin to trust the room

There is space where cold has been

There is light beneath my skin

It is quiet, it is true

Still a little touched by blue

Hope is not a sudden start

It is thaw inside the heart

Morning resting on the ground

Dripping in a tender sound

Winter fading out of sight

As I lean into the light