“Some Words for the Week”

My car says it’s 18 degrees out

the frost on the window

the shiver in my skin

the mountains like icebergs

afloat in a crystalline sky

all agree, is finally cold again

people tell me they’d love

to live up here but that

they fear winters

how do you get through it

they ask and this is how

I start my car a half hour before

I have to leave to go to work

I keep the fire lit

and an extra blanket

under the bed

and I drive slow over ice

awe jawed at the frozen morning

the silence after summer

the sweetest thing I’ve heard.

Alexander Shalom Joseph is a writer from Gilpin County. He has two published books and one more forthcoming in the Fall of 2022. For more information and to subscribe to Alexander’s Newsletter go to alexandershalomjoseph.com