an unnecessary coat

Sometimes I think about my years as a teenager
And I'm incredibly happy
Happy to no longer be under the thumb
Of a cult leader
Who called himself a pastor

I left at seventeen
But found myself in a similarly controlling situation
Shortly thereafter
It really wasn't until a few years later
That I broke out of that pattern

My parents say that when I was a toddler
There was a period when
I refused to take my winter coat off
Even indoors
Even after it got warm outside

There is a weight to the controlled life
When lifted, the freedom is so unfamilar
That it is uncomfortable
So much so that the oppression becomes
A missed warmth when attempting to remove it
Until ripped away
And one realizes the world is warm enough
Without the weight of an unnecessary coat

what we remember

A dying winter today spread
What would have been a heavy blanket in January
Now a worn sheet in March
Ripped and fraying
Showing both the fervent resolve
And weakening grip of an ending season

You seem a little desperate

The song sparrows brushed it off
Stubbornly singing through the flurry
While I stared out the antique window
Vignetted by condensation
I did not sing

It is not in my nature to negotiate
With the falling snow
To plead my case to the howling wind
But there are times I want to say

You're being ridiculous

The way the temperature drops
After the morning drinks in its sunlight
Until satisfied
And the day suddenly wants to start showing off
Pressing in on some idea
Like a child clumsily learning to dance
Humming its own melodramatic soundtrack
As if to say, "Remember me" to the world

But I would have remembered you as the January blanket
The five foot snow drifts
If only on those couple of days
If you had not reminded me
With your last exhausted breath
What a gentle, uneventful winter this has been