Poem by Rob Badger

I sat there

The ripped clothing I wore

Was not enough.

I smothered my chest with my arms and hands

My heart beat slowly and quietly

Barely heard over the voice of the cold.

I started to shake

The ball I was rolled over

I lay there in the soft white death.

Feeling began to be only mental

As my fingers lost my ribs

And my eye lashes became bars.

I was the last speck of warmth

For miles and miles

I was dying this nightmare.

The land claimed me quickly

I may have been dead but I was aware

The snow no longer asked to cover me.

Each time I heard the voice

I was lost a little bit more

To the soft cold death.

Now I was just a part of a scene

One small fragment of the world

One tiny picture in its frame.

I had no face

I had no body and no voice

But I was there.

That one small thought

That encouraging statement

Let me go on.

I was once something

I was whole and me, an individual

But now I am a part of the whole.

I am now the bigger picture

The inches outside picture frames

And the wandering mind.