In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
— Albert Camus
From your carved corner, from your side of the crossroads
You asked me to take a look: love, it’s snowing here right now
And in the hurriedness of your work at hand, you sent without an edit:
have you seen now before?
Not this kind of winter so beautiful even during office hours. You don’t seem undone.
I say this with the Pacific cold leaning towards summer, and some skin left thin,
old enough to still feel shaped by a world awfully round. You’re wrapped in mountain time, and I’m thawing out.
I circle back in: yes, but not in its full—only in destiny’s shivers and misspells as I face the sun.
How do we hold the future? Hope always goes warm—and there’s no smoke out of sighs from your end—
at times when the breadth of longing comes out for me in the night. If your embrace unwinds,
I wish that I was freezing now.
Andrea D. Lim is a writer and education and reading advocate who considers General Santos City, South Cotabato, her hometown. She is always at the mercy of good words and great coffee, and she finds discomfort in arriving at hurried superlatives.