Variation on a winter day

How shall we survive
           in the thin-streaming
winter light through
           the days of hard frost
when our breath curls
           from our mouths
and our skin shivers

We who are born alone
           and seek only the company
and acceptance of others
           how shall we use our days
to further the pursuit
           of warmth and affection
how shall we bring colour
           where nature is stripped
to the bone or beneath
           the black sky where
shimmering stars fill
           that frozen space

We on the wide earth
           who do never know
where our steps will end
           nor what form it will take
nor by what rules of clemency
           our lives’ work will be judged

John Lyons