My first non-gloomy winter poem!

[tigrerossa]

The lights are out for the night
--glass bulbs cooling in the dark--
and we are burrowed into our den of downy blankets
while the world shrinks around us,
down to the size of our huddled forms.

I can hear the winter throwing a tantrum
outside, knocking together branches,
fussing with leaves on the ground. It sends the
rain running under the eaves for cover.

Inside the blankets it is a feast of warmth,
your breathing and mine the only stirring.

I imagine you and I are snug in an igloo.
While the ice and snow and polar bears
in the dread black ocean rage on outside,
our bodies together make a furnace strong enough
to fight off the vast dark tundra.

Or, I think, we are in a birdhouse, snuggled in our nest
made of sticks and string, feathers and shiny things.
We are love birds with puffed up feathers, heads together
eyes shut tight.

A burst of howling makes the whole house creak
but the boards and windows hold tight
against the waging war.
And I wrap you tighter in my arms to keep you warm.