Today, the pond is stiff with ice

and when I tossed a stone and saw it slide, not sink,

I watched it sitting on the frozen surface

and took a breath of the chilly air,

surprised at how what rippled yesterday

was now so still and new,

changed by the weather’s way.

And standing on the frozen water’s edge,

remembering the huge typhoon

that ripped so many lives apart

a world away,

I look out at the ice

that came into my life,

wondering what I would do

if one day,

admiring the rising sun,

the next day,

everything I knew and had was swept away.

Today the sky is blue.

The trees that once had leaves are bare.

And every step I take takes me where I’m going,

and so I take another breath of the cold morning air

and look out at the ice that now is there.