In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.

Albert Camus, French Philosopher

. . .

Who is yond walker that welters through the frozen midnight snow?

From afar we can tell that he’s aquiver, as gelid gusts blow.

The shivering silhouette inches forward, the cold catching up,

He surmounts the trembling, thinking solely of his family and coffee cup.

He recalls the moment of his departure when he bid his family adieu,

Inconsequential it was; now he wishes, that moment he could renew!

Cold was his embrace when he spoke that winter tinted word.

“Goodbye!” would become the last sound of his, that his family ever heard.

“No!” he bellowed defiantly, “Winter shan’t claim my soul!”

His end approached malignly but he rebuffed Death’s toll.

The walker found within his pulsating heart the will to weather the cold,

He would dawdle on through frosty fields, his family once more to hold!

Winter huffed and puffed and sought to blow the man towards his death,

A warmth took hold of the walker’s heart that thawed the man’s regret!

. . .

Granville D. Austin