Patchwork: All these lights that shine so brightly in my eyes.

She smiled and was silent. 
Her mind full of trolley cars. 
With her arm in the air and the snow falling all around,
legs tucked beneath her, just like a madman. 

He flattened. 
His mind was white. 
The air filled up with feathers. 
He wished with all his heart that men could embrace. 
Looked like a child about to make an angel in the snow.

The crows began to call to one another.

He read her Huckleberry Finn,
gave her one last reassuring look at her son, 
fingers curled to make a fist.
He flattened, 
climbed the steeple of the church with her in his arms 
as more and more clouds were leaving the sky.

Her legs had fallen asleep,
it seemed to take hours. 
Like a madman he took every step,
she was shaking so violently.

The sky was full of birds, small clouds. 
He didn’t know how to go on or what to say. 
They stood there
above it all 
and now the leaves have fallen twice.

© Ellen Trottier