winter of my heart

winter of my heart
have i loved you enough
for you to be my dear?
for you are the thing
set aside by most
and left out of that bright
awakening of color
yet i recognize you now as the
suffering soul
that ice, that sting that
let me cry many tears
but how the mud
of your time has laid on my
soul a kind of grit
that is like earth rich and sharp
and something good to taste
like butter being churned
over and over again
and becoming more sweet