The Ones Winter Took

When I tell the girls from University

That I know people who have frozen to death

They look at me like something rabid

A wild animal from somewhere bare and cold,

Feral and untouched by human hands

When I tell them that most of us

From the far north where dark winters hug tight

Know a person or two that was lost to frostbite

Their eyes glaze over and I watch them disappear

Their brains click off, gone to watch a movie

They cannot fathom the loss, so real

When I tell them what winter has taken from me

When I must count on fingers how many I know

That were found, blood frosted in their veins

Slumped over in sleep of snow

A fixture of the frozen terrain

As if they could crack like glass

Shatter in fractals of ice on the Yukon highway

I have known people who died on their front porch

Too drunk to make it inside in time

Too cold to be alive by morning

She died with her key in the door

When I tell the girls from the south

What winter has taken from me

Taken from my friends and family

They cannot comprehend

When I read a text from someone I know

That someone I know never made it home

That cold and snow took them

I feel like a wild animal with white fur

A creature of cold and bone

I shiver when I think of home

When I think of frosted veins

and the frozen daughters

I am rabid from the cold

From those lost to the snow

***

Mercedes Bacon-Traplin is an emerging LGBTQ writer from Whitehorse, Yukon. She has had a passion for writing from a very young age. She is currently finishing her Bachelor’s in creative writing at the University of Alberta and intends to pursue a Masters in creative writing. In many of her poems, she explores themes of gender and queerness through her perspective. She can be followed on her Instagram @mercedesbt1224