Into the Night

What would make you leave your house on a frigid winter night?

Black, moonless night
Backwoods silence under the one star sky
An open field, a dirt road, and a wooden bridge
lay between your place and mine
faintly illuminated by the dim beam of my black metal flashlight.

Icy, snowy night
Bereft of caring, void of life.
Oaks loom startlingly,
trees my nose feels before my eyes see
My eyes sting, but I die if I lie still; I push on.

Harsh, cloudless night
Snow and ice crunching beneath my tan work boots.
A night not meant for dreaming.
Windless. Haunting. Loveless.
But there is love enough in me.

Into this dismal night I enter
Because, out there, you wait....