motion and memory

there’s that scene in Dr. Zhivago 

of Yuri pilgriming through the snowy plains 

of Russia 

that adheres my mind 

it seems when I was a kid 

when there was a movie 

featured in the gymnasium 

of our small town it was either 

Gone With The Wind or Dr. Zhivago 

and even though I was unable to hold 

the geopolitics or romantic entanglements 

in my young cupped hands

these images of snow-swept cold 

lodged in my body so that 

I’ll never see gloves with fingers cut off 

without calling them into focus 

body shivering 

and today as I look out at blinding whiteness 

and hear Gorecki’s slow march 

it’s me on that long icy trek 

making prints in the Manitoba snow 

towards my love