Frigidity

The crunching crust

Of ice and snow

Compressed beneath our feet

For warmth we lust

And pray just now

In a snow-globe of sleet

The fire red

The ice so white

Fight for our mortal frames

One gives us life

The other, death

Death by ice; life through flames

The pulpy slush

Between our toes

Freezes on shrinking skin

Onward we trudge

In gluttons’ hell;

Cerberus put us in

The drain of blood

From each digit

Is numb, yet full of pain

We travel on

Journey not done

Deluged by icy rain

No stopping here,

In this land, queer

Where fire never blazed

The ice and slush

And whipping winds

Killed the spark, ‘fore ‘twas made

Our senses dulled

Bodies frozen

We drift into a sleep

From whence, we souls

Shall never wake

‘Til brought up from the deep