Get out of bed
and step outside
in short sleeves today 

when only a few degrees
keep the rain 
from becoming snow.

Your skin asks hard questions
of you: why now, why today,
why is this necessary? 

It’s not that you are
deathly cold, but it is
raw enough out here

to drive you to full waking;
why, considering everything, 
in the midst of all things

being on fire,
did you crave
the routine misery of cold and wet?

Was it to remind you
of other
possibilities?