“Acceptance” (A Lenten Poem)

This morning, as I rose out of the subway station
and the grey, cold sky welcomed me with sharp kisses upon my lips and cheeks,
I closed my eyes to smile as grief’s last stage filled
my heart.
And I breathed in an eternal winter, where spring is only a story and
only arrives
as an apocalypse.
A matter of hope that barely
survives the canon.