It is Winter

The ground is ice-cold
            with many layers of frozen water,
unbreakable icicles
            their facets cut like diamonds.

It’s snowing-
            my hands freeze
as my heart turns
            blue, and more blue

An old myth says
            that everyone’s a snowman-
and on them, I carve
            smiles, determinedly-but

they lie through their teeth.
            Their heart is too cold, white
like frozen earth.
It’s August,
            but the weather is sheer winter.

Translated by Sudeep Sen