after Frosty the Snowman

falling like repeated documentation of a funeral flowing underneath frozen film. Winter, a widow grieving with frozen tears. Her face, a pale sadness; but how can I not mistake her saltwater cheeks for celestial objects, collect the glistening on my lashes like light-catching ornaments? Outside, brumal wolves howl their pellets of ice, and I hold the moonlight between my teeth. I am a garden of recovery, nestled beneath amber fireplace flames and blankets of white, so viciously understanding the need to bury and blanken, bleach the blood out of the sheets. We won’t survive life, so we might as well grasp tinsel in a blizzard. Even when the cold chases off the wild geese, the daylilies, the monarchs. Even when the wind rushes its own tail with a knife.

Prompts used (tags are the poets’ IG handles):

@imandq + @ml.mecham + @laur_enough - “flowing underneath frozen film” @libbyjenner.poetry - “amber fireplace flames” + “nestled beneath blankets” @alexismromo - “repeated documentation” @rosepapercastles - “collect hearts like ornaments” @maryoliversdrunkcousin - “‘I suppose it all started with the snow.’ - from Frosty the Snowman” @elenaspoetry - “we won’t survive life so we might as well live it” @jasmine.s.higgins - “celestial object” @loisofthehearth - “I am a garden of recovery” @kaytpoems - “holding moonlight between my teeth” @imandq + @ml.mecham + @theincidentalpoet - “when the wind chases its tail”