What Good is the Cold?

In Manitoba when it gets to
minus 35 and the wind picks up
I don't wonder why
the cat wants assurences
The wall between us
and death is thin on a vacuum earth.

I run home to escape the coming storm
dark with ice that hides the sun,
a glass of wine and a piece of cheese
trust in a furnace and walls not falling away.
I don't have to go out, not tonight.

Cold,
running with gloved hand against my nose
and feeling the bite on my face
reminds me of life
for those who are free.