“We survived the winter”-
a victory yawn
at the end of an angry white April,
as fat raindrops splash triumphantly
into a sea of roadside snow
on our morning drive,
coffee-scented, swish and roar,
with the radio turned off
in order to hear our world’s birth,
yeah, we
survived the winter
no small feat in a one-room
half-finished
propane-heater, off-the-grid, no-water-no-nothing
humble little home,
our loud, crowded family
constantly together
like always
like forever—
a good seven months holed up
full of life and rice pudding and talk of green to come
buried in a black-and-white
black-as-night
hard-to-fight freezing
of an Alaskan
Tough Time—
yeah, we survived
the winter

…or maybe it survived
us.