Cold

Night-drenched skin

and bloodless lips,

shoulders caving in

and trembling hips.

Thrumming through the silence

like a beating of wings.

Scraped knees 

and a slow crawl.

But

that thrumming beat,

that relentless heat,

it dug in deeper

curled in the recess

deeper, deeper, deeper

it thrummed

deeper, deeper, deeper.

Words of malice

and cold cruelty

choking

on that freezing heat.