Below Zero

I breathe deeply
These winter mornings
Like I’m at ten thousand feet
Both movement and thinking
Tedious
Slow.

Behind the wheel
I stare out the windshield
Morning sun dancing
From ice cycles
Snow patches on roofs
Smoke drifting
Above suburban chimneys
Truck in park
Heart in neutral.

My breath exhales
As vapor
Swirling before my face
Like clouds forming
At mountain peaks.

Minutes spiral away.

A sales paper
Pushed by February winds
Somersaults the ice.
I shiver involuntarily
Jerking back to reality.

My hands encircle
My cup of one cream
Two sugars
Steaming the frigid air.

A microcosm of my life
Trying hard to stay hot
In a life measured
Below zero.

In this environment
Even tears freeze.