Breathe

I have been here before, this bridge this river the frozen over lake.
Ice skates.
Skidding down.  Cold and wet, bitter taste of dirty ice.
Slicing.  Slicing, sharp blade engraving circles into hardened white and it all could break and you could fall away.
Become trapped inside and frozen into its being.
Circle, circle, until you're dizzy.  You used to like the feeling.
Hurry, warm me up.  I am bleeding.
Crimson turns the snow, its crunches under our feet.
I felt it in me then, so deep and heavy.
And we played pretend.
But all the time the ice was breaking
And it dangled down, came undone.
I thought I knew what I was feeling
but it slowly faded into something more unknown than death,
it was purely life.
It felt like absolutely everything
lingering, waiting to become its own, separate from the others.
Strings, strings coming out of me.  I'm coming undone.
Cracking, do you hear it?
The ice, it can't bear this weight any more.
I can't bear it any more.
Spinning and gliding
the melody of blowing winds and ringing bells
they hang above your head
chiming and signaling the change of the season
but you understand less than you ever have just what this means
The ice is water
transformation is fixed
And under the old bridge, the river returns
But now you go with it, away from this place.