Rationing

I fell in love with you

with one frosty inhale

It took me right back

to that cabin in the north woods

your neighbor lent us for the weekend,

only to put us 100 miles from anywhere

in a snowstorm with a broken window

As the evening bit down

on our bones, we huddled

Your breath was like minty fumes

of ice water submerging mouth muscle

as we made love to keep warm

We didn't have to stay warm that way –

we could have just wrapped a blanket

around us and sat closer to the fire

But I was saving those flames

for the afterglow