cold

August 25, 2026

/ HJ / Leave a comment

i slept last night in a room
so cold
the a/c unit [set to 70] turned itself
off
it got cold enough that it
felt it had done its job
[and i know, i know,
i have friends who are overheated
until the thermostat reads lower than 68
but let me tell you, anything below 74 and i am
straight up shivering]
and so i slept with a little hat on
my go-to hat for wintertimes
when my head and ears need covering
but i didn’t want to cover up the beautiful rainbow
that my hair was
[but is not anymore]
and that rainbow hat
tamed my wild full head of cowlick down
to sit flat against my forehead
and ears
and neck
and not look completely foolish
and i don’t know how i feel about this particular look
[just as i don’t know how to feel about
this particular haircut]
but hey
i’m trying things
and i’m letting the situation lead me;
so if today is a flat head of hair day
because circumstances were such that
i actually needed to sleep in a hat last night
[and i always suspected hat-sleeping would lead to
this hair-flattening]
then today
is a flat head of hair day

we’re just going with the flow
in general
but in particular with hair

[philosophizing
but really, it’s the practical matters
that sometimes need the poetizing]

July 31, 2026

/ HJ / Leave a comment

the nose feels the cold first
breathing in the chill air
where it warms in my lungs
huddled up with my other
bodily organs, tucked and blanketed
by sinew and blood and skin and
pajamas and sheets and blankets
even the near inch of hair on my head
is enough to protect the skull from feeling
the crispness of the air, and the cheeks flushed
half tucked in a pillow, hands huddled underneath,
but the nose is the most exposed
and it tells the rest of the body how it will feel in
a few minutes when we finally
face the reality of
the outside of the bed

and it tells us
be prepared
to feel as close to frozen
as one can in the summer
in a barn in
pennsylvania

March 13, 2026

/ HJ / Leave a comment

it’s chilly again
this morning

we had our peek into what
the rest of next season will look like
i could even feel my mood
shifting
upwards

and now it’s cold once more

the dreary, winter sky
the brisk winter air
that slices your face if you don’t cover yourself well
and the hopelessness that accompanies it all

[i wish i could enjoy
anything
about winter

but my soul was made for
anything
but]

February 1, 2026

/ HJ / Leave a comment

it blows into february
the air of awful anticipation on its wing
the cold burning even colder
than january’s sting
at least there’s snow
from the first month’s storm
whitening the ground
providing [minimal] distraction
from second month’s
curse

March 2, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

March has come in
like the lion it is —
bringing one day of relief,
and then an evening of terror,
followed by a morning
where, once again, it hurts to open my eyes
outside

let’s hope it does
go out like
a lamb

January 8, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

Cold

like Wisconsin was all winter

Cold

the opposite of what’s happening in LA, apparently, with their literal
red
hot
fires

Cold

the temperature outside is below freezing
and the “feels like” temperature is in the
single digits

Cold

but we have a house
and food
and warm warm booties

Cold

but this is only one day
in one week
in one month of one winter

and the days are already getting longer

Cold

and tomorrow may be
Cold
as well, but we’ll survive the

Cold

we will

we will.

June 15, 2024

/ HJ / Leave a comment

hot hot outside
inside so damn cold
even without any a/c
even without the freezing air of summer
in the united states

i wonder how many folks
feel colder in the summer
than the spring and fall
i just want there to be a time of year
when i don’t feel
tragically
mis-taken-care-of
by modern society
or nature

[maybe costa rica really is
the best place to be
for me]

December 21, 2023

/ HJ / Leave a comment

it’s that time of year
where the only dopamine is from the bright decorative lights after the sun sets at 4
and that of the morning sun hitting the frost just so
as i shiver in my own home
[no matter what the heat is set to]
and i can’t help but wish for the brighter days/the warmer ways
that summer months send us
and annoy us
and i would much rather be complaining of too much heat
than even a little bit of cold —
my muscles tighten up in winter,
my whole body stops moving smoothly,
and i can’t can’t cannot get happy
no matter what i do

[i can’t even get into
writing poetry in
the morningtime]

[but at least it gets better from here on out, right?]