Winter

He trudges forward
Feet numbed from cold
Teeth chatter
Snow that falls
Into his hair
Rests in his gray
He falls to his knees
And curses God
Before he lays his head
And dies

A woman and her baby
Struggle through the snow
The bundled child
Held against her chest
Begging for warmth
Tears freeze to cheeks
At home the baby
Is unwrapped
And found deceased

Mother cat
And four kittens
Starve slowly
In the cold
Mother cat does not want
Her babies to suffer
One by one
She kills them
And slowly herself
Dies alone

The sun rises
The air warms
But it is too late
The world is dead
Statues of flesh
For the heat to melt
And Death
Has a lot of work
Ahead of her