Below Zero

Below Zero
by Madeline Levine
Why do I like it better in the cold?
Well tell me, when do you feel most alive?
When you’re handed comfort?
When you’re handed warmth?
Or when you greet the air fighting,
Braced for the day
And the chill washes over you
And you feel a strange singularity
A oneness
A wholeness
A this is me in all my beauty
All my strength
And at once you are feeling
And knowing
Innately, down to your bones
That this is you
This is you living
This is you giving
Yourself to the world.