"Cold enough for you?"

Your soul is a frozen orange,

And you brought me here to peel your cold skin.

My soul? Very warm fingers. 
The apples are watching as I set to work

At freeing the fruit in you.

What I find most interesting,

Is that as I free you, I also become more free.

When you are free, my liberation will be complete.

Does this make for odd poetry?

Yes, but my fingers and I can live with that.

_____

            Reach inside yourself for the strength you need. It’s there. Your strength is in your own heart, it has always been there. Hold on to your faith in life, in your own humanity. Believe in yourself. Keep hope. Love and life will go on. Until it doesn’t.

_____

Relearn everything, all of it.

Remember that every moment 

is a new beginning. 

_____

"Cold enough for you?"

"Yup. If this is for me, it can quit anytime."

Life slows down, businesses and schools close,

And God help you if it rains just before the norther hits;

The world will be covered in a sheet of ice.

Power lines and tree limbs snap, the roads are a danger,

And many water pipes give up the ghost and burst.

The wind speaks with a ghostly voice,

"Woooo," and you had better get the livestock in the barn.

Salt the porches and walkways, put chains on the tires,

Get out the old checkerboard and the playing cards,

And settle in to wait it out, like waiting out a siege.

People in other places tend to think of Texas as hot,

And a lot of the time that's true enough.

You can see a seventy degree Christmas or New Year.

But the next day a norther strides in and slaps your face,

And everything changes for a few hard days.

I have seen my father put on his wife's pantyhose

Under his long-underwear, and two pairs of pants on top.

The cold bites hard on people who are used to heat.

The smart ones are prepared, late in the fall they stock up.

Rock salt goes in the shed, the fruit is canned,

A pig and a yearling calf go into the deep freezer.

A cord or two of wood is cut, tire chains are checked,

Repaired if needed, and put in the back of the truck.

The chainsaw blade is sharpened and oiled, too,

For the limbs that will fall, probably right in the way.

Then, when the norther comes like an unliked relative,

Which is a fair comparison, they can smile about it.

If the power goes out, they can cook on the old wood stove,

They light the kerosene lanterns and play checkers.

There is hay in the barn and the fences are strong.

"Cold enough for you?"

"Yup. If this is for me, it can quit anytime."

The family is close, and if the cold night is long, so what?

In three days, maybe four, the sun will melt the ice,

And the world will recover, and heal with the warmth.

Time after time, winter after winter, the world always recovers.

And the life we know once again goes on.

by James Lee Jobe 

_____

“Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.” 

Jack Kornfield 

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Thanks, James