I have busted out the bike, though snow falls daily and 20F is the best we get so far. It feels good to ride into town. I look forward to that ride when the sea is not frozen and the air warm.

Will

The beer is bitter in the Lauttapub,
as bitter as the faces sipping in
silence. There're other bars with better beer,
but they come here because the stagnant air
keeps time to the beat of their daily lives,
their minds are as dusty as the curtains
& bodies faded as the walls. Besides,
two eighty's cheap for a half liter beer.

Samppa says Finns alone deserve this fate,
wallowing in so much useless sorrow.
But I can't help hope when that gray woman
sets down her glass & steps into the street,
she'll burst onto the day like a butterfly
emerging from a cocoon, her dazzling
spirit lifting our eyes to the clear sky.