When snowflakes melt
They melt from the outside, in
When people dissolve
They dissolve from the inside, out
You may not even know
That person standing next to you on the bus
Has nothing inside but icing
We are, after all, consummate sleepwalkers
And act, as if we wrap up everything, it will thaw
Even as the emptying of layers reveals it was 
Only shadow muffled
Something we used to be 
Before it became too hard
And the deception
Feels like a fickle lover, you can’t quit
A lung full of poisoning
A bed without dreamers
Only then the clock reveals
All its missing time
You spent putting bows on hollow boxes, with empty routines and unpolished shoes
When you could have been
Watching snow fall
Like a blanketed mirror of another world
Where you didn’t cut your finger on fears edge
And slip unconscious into hedging your bets
Where you found your long lost mittens and hat
Red against virgin snow, sledding almost vertical
We choose our closed doors with care
Would that we gave such attention to those standing slightly open
Offering a way to cut through resisting ice
Restoring wonderment