Parting ways is my cold refuge,

heading nowhere, away from

naught beckoning my stay—ice-laden 

winds rebuke this unannounced 

departure

Frigid bones provoke visions of other 

deaths I've known.

I felt you in opaque—tasteless

breadcrumbs you offered me in

lieu of your sacred flame—hollow 

pages of a brief chapter from a novel 

never penned. 

It wasn't I who sought you out.