sore hips limp trick legs on steep streets slick with a sleet of guilt
feet slush soaked, weakness mucks the snowy sidewalk.
thick bitter aches pull grimaces like rotten teeth.
the cacophany of rebellious snowfall has married into the landscape,
settled down to raise families of frosted twigs.
houses sleep wrapped in modest cloaks of thoughtless white,
hibernating in pools of their own damp breath.
their doors are all unmarked and click-locked.
their doors are all walls of shuttered silence.
i tiptoe in the uneven topography of re-frozen stone-ice,
a raw walking womb,
bloody and blind as a newborn rat.
purse-snatchers lick their chops in the alleys and train stations,
always sighing in disappointment to find my wallet only contained
10 obsolete rubles and a czech penny.
i trade in worthless mementos.
i bleed into myself, bruiselike,
pulsing like a busy bus.
just let me follow those tracks up the hill
to visit those ravaged castles
let's go there with a thermos and a blanket
and wear our human hearts this time.
stand atop the sleeping stone wreckage of history
and kiss my frozen face.