Blizzardy refuge

 

Hunkered in on rootpillow coastal redwood base 

Last two mornings, ground reliant on towering limbed fronds 

To absorb dew and guide the night tempests 

Below thirty many times now, hands numb not from cold but from tucking them in hugs around myself into armpits or under slumbering noggins 

Then impeding blizzards force a retreat to motel comforts 

I arrive in the first teeth with a backpack bursting in groceries 

Wads of crinkly cash, my admission and first time the owner is working the desk, understaffed 

Winds whip the trees outside my second floor view, the dormant volcano twenty blocks away is taken, eraserure powdered in simultaneous roars 

I open my window and blast the heater at $90 a night why not with Luke bathwater and burn stains around the screenless hello to sheer winter knives 

I get the check-in call from my ex late when all is parked and begin the following day with a noon hefeweizen and making chilli from scratch using microwave sorcery 

Feed birds daylong chip crumbs breadbits and warm fresh corn, a squirrel with frozen fur takes his share the birds scatter, trees creak with ice as wind never 

Never relents, my coastal redwood measured 18 feet round about 1000 feet away and how many hundred years the wiser