Derailed

by Jasmine Lunia

A life, derailed,

by winter's onset;

a blizzard unlike global warming’s rush,

grey dirt under my gnawed fingernails,

a finger nearly sawed from its knuckled base.

The life promised so much

but the season brought virus, blizzard, drought,

summer romanticized through a lens dimmed in the present,

strawberry soda, stomach full of love and wine,

drops of mercury only strengthened its intensity.

Forgotten cycle, a denial that winter returns,

her imminence, an ominous unidentifiable presence,

temporally dependent yet negating time -

how does one live when the two bodies

under their scalp, below their ribs, horizontal across the self

never cease their longstanding war?