In January

In January
Everything is frozen:
The lake, the lawn,
The shrubs, the grass,
The very roots and branches of the trees.
January freezes the sun and the sunlight,
The moon and the stars.
Even time itself is frozen
In January.

In January
Snow and ice covers it all.
Snow covers ice, ice covers more snow,
Snow and ice, ice and snow,
Layer upon frozen layer,
Until all is frozen and still
In the January dark.

In January
We live inside in little heated bubbles
Of light and warmth.
We pump them full of the heat and the light
That keeps January at bay,
That keeps each bubble from collapsing
Under the pressure of all those layers
Of January's ice and snow,
January's snow and ice.

And though time itself is frozen solid
Outside of our little heated bubbles,
Inside, the days pass.
Inside, we live and we love,
We grow up, we grow old,
We grow together,
Inside our little heated bubbles
In January.