Frostbitten

When you start finding solace in a pain strong enough to numb all others

So cold,
Cold enough to bite.
Winter seeped in slowly,
In between the summer folds.
How come I never noticed?

But the frost was welcomed,
For it held me through nights I didn’t recognise myself—
Curled in between the bedsheets,
It enveloped my lone form
When my nakedness got too ugly to be promised forever.

It bared me, opened me, accepted me
The way fire accepts its forest—
No demands, no exceptions.
It kissed my vulnerability so deeply,
Each brush raising the hair on my neck,
Chills running down my spine.

I felt pins all over me,
Needles burying so deep within my bones,
But I cared too little to process the hurt.

You tried to push the frost away—
Were you worried?
Though I can’t care less.
Even my blackening fingertips
Can’t pull me back.