Seasons (Winter) Poem by Alto Lee Thomas, Jr.

Life's essence ebbs in metered spews of frosted broken breaths;
He trudges up that final slope, exposed in mottled flesh.
All failing thew on grinding bones, this winded rusted train,
Masks agony in coats of hopes; his body's last betrayal.

Observe this aging dinosaur once coated black and thick
Now clouding eyes shade pristine mind dimmed by dementia's tricks.
Plagued by blizzards of regrets that rush on frozen northern winds
He prays to be forgiven for his mortal and immortal sins.

Scabs encrusts his feeble heart plucked beating, rent, and worn,
By greedy leeches eating down to thinning bone.
Exhaustion wraps his wasting face and stamps with gentle kiss
As flashes steal the feel of dreams that he will never miss.
Oblivious to afterlife pursued from high and low,
He rests, instead, his heavy head to sleep beneath the snow.