On the other side of the world
There’s snow on his doorstep, and his door is ajar;
the chill seeps in like an uninvited memory.
He tries to drown her dark eyes in hot cocoa
and forget her voice and her lilting accent.
He shivers because it is winter
and she is not with him.
There was no winter back at home.
The sun would stare him down with all its fury
but he only felt the sunlight in her eyes.
Her voice was the warmest breeze of summer,
evoking the gentlest of memories;
they used to play in the rain and race upon the white sand beaches.
He had kissed her goodbye in the dying light of a sunset
and her tears fell like the first storm of the summer.
He shivers because it was never cold at home;
and he misses her.
