the winter, although not fully here, has been slow moving. it’s been relatively warm, cold at times, but nothing bone chilling, nothing cracking the thermostat like years past. christmas is fast approaching, having snuck up on us like some sort of feline predator and we have yet to scurry out of its inevitable grasp. i awake some mornings with a clarity that i know is fleeting, where i am wordless and without that nervy restlessness that compels me to write. i can sit and have my coffee, smoke a cigarette and simply enjoy watching others make their way through the beginning of another day.