In Winter's Depths, I Found Summer

In winter’s depth,
I walked broken streets.
Empty pockets.
Head full of hissing demons.
Whiskey for warmth.
Neon nights for company.

Underneath the frost
and frozen hearts.
Underneath the loneliness
in shadowed rooms.
Something small, powerful—
a dim pulse, barely there, but consistent.
A heat without a name.

And these days?
Well, I’m out of that dead life,
those graveyard days.

Fairways full of miracles.
Cats chirping, fat as spring robins,
happy as I watch and write
lines that sing of a new life.

An invincible summer lives in me,
stubborn, potent.
December lingers forever,
but underneath it all—I’m on fire.
A want worth more than
all the treasure buried beneath the sea.