Severus and Stone

all the trees stood like skeletons

silhouettes of spilled ink

and the snows fell in sheets and got wrapped around our

feet

we built the fire evermore with winter beating at the

door

brother's eyes were getting heavier

his bony hands cold and white

and I could hear his ragged breathing like the wind

along a knife

there beside him through the night, in the hum of

candlelight

I no longer felt the time

brother woke just after midnight

and he didn't make a sound

and as he climbed from out of bed with severed rings

around his head

his feet didn't touch the ground

I could feel it then

a tiny miracle

so I followed him

into the woods

crossed beneath the trees

but only I left my prints in tow

he was afloat

found a lonely tree

and tied himself within its limbs

and he said to me these words:

don't you fear for me,

I am where I'm supposed to be.

and when I woke he was gone

and I was wrapped in blankets on the lawn

the sky was blue and my skin matched the hue

and I could hear mother crying in your room

from here on out I wear this face for both of us