all the trees stood like skeletons silhouettes of spilled ink and the snows fell in sheets and got wrapped around our feet we built the fire evermore with winter beating at the door
brother's eyes were getting heavier his bony hands cold and white and I could hear his ragged breathing like the wind along a knife there beside him through the night, in the hum of candlelight I no longer felt the time
brother woke just after midnight and he didn't make a sound and as he climbed from out of bed with severed rings around his head his feet didn't touch the ground
I could feel it then a tiny miracle so I followed him into the woods crossed beneath the trees but only I left my prints in tow he was afloat found a lonely tree and tied himself within its limbs and he said to me these words: don't you fear for me, I am where I'm supposed to be.
and when I woke he was gone and I was wrapped in blankets on the lawn the sky was blue and my skin matched the hue and I could hear mother crying in your room from here on out I wear this face for both of us