I Need a Hug

I Need a Hug

Your words fall like snowflakes:
Softly, silently
Smothering my heart
In their icy blanket.

To you there is only
A superficial
Serenity, while
Underneath I’m bleeding.

Cut deep, I used to feel
Such pain! Now coldness
Has suffused my core
With a creeping numbness.

Springtime seems so distant
From bleak midwinter.
More dead than alive.
Solace in abeyance.

False hope brings quickening:
Green shoots pierce the snow
Only to wither.
A late frost overwhelms.

My hibernating heart,
Its reserves of strength
Exhausted, clings to
Memories of past warmth.