it smells like snow,
    you said as you stood in the opposite
direction of the oncoming wind.

i wonder if you can sense other things
the way you smell these miraculous
workings of nature--

like can you sense right now
   these unspoken thoughts
and these masked feelings,

as you turn your back towards me
and refuse to cast your gaze
upwind..?

and i, thought i momentarily,
  stand behind you only to
keep myself safe from the chill

because when i was young,
my mom once told me colds could kill.
so i'll never let myself breathe cold air such as this.

(it's safer that way,)        
you know.