alone on a winter's night

it's flag-whipping cold

my essence brother du mu wrote poems so very long ago

and yet

they're right here

right now

like me

grasping

at the essence

of cold winter aloneness

~

outside the window, wind and snow blow straight,

i clutch the stove and open a flask of wine.

~

later on, liu zong yuan arrived in a similar space when he wrote;

not a bird in miles flying in the cold,

on all roads and tracks, not even a soul.

only one old man with a grass hat and shawl,

fishing in his lonely boat in the snow.

~

oh man it's cold and lonely ...