Polar

The air had become heavy
with cigarette smoke
and gasoline. Summer,
I knew, was coming,
emerging in the dark
like the sun on the horizon.

I inhaled the thick air,
letting my lungs
become infected, my mind
hazy.

You stood by and shivered
as if you were cold,
and I spun in the imperial
fields that went on forever,
past the horizon, past the sky.

You kept your arms
tight around themselves,
as if you were hiding
a secret that only winter
could understand.