New Year's Prayer

Running through air 

thick with cold, 

fingers curled inside

mittens trimmed 

with frost, breath 

plumes around my

lips at dawn.  

The pale sun rises 

from sheets of rose 

and gold, spilling 

light across fields 

covered with snow. 

Last year's shadows 

fade while I pull a cap 
low over my ears,
lean against the cold,

and pray
into the new year.