Haunted Flurries

I sit by death’s cold door
A certain expiration date
Soon from here, I’ll be no more
Solemnly resigned to fate

Winter winds cold as old sin
Frost blooms on glassy panes
Ice and snow asking to be let in
Blanketing the frozen lanes

I dwell on winters long since passed
On sins and sorrow, deep and raw
Lives traded, cut short too fast
By the flick of pen and manmade law

The scene obscures in icy gales
Thoughts dissolve in the pale frost
What’s this shadow, thin and frail?  
A sight that leaves my stomach tossed

Decayed faces glare through the snow
Wind slicing, piercing to my bone
Their hollow stares—silent, aglow
Freeze me fast, I’m not alone

They stand, a jury without breath
Condemning me beneath their gaze
Why must you linger, children of death
Haunting these final days?  

Why can’t I fade to peaceful dark?  
Why must your presence taunt my air?  
You press upon me, cold and stark
Specters of lives I could not spare

Release is denied; I wait in vain
Their eyeless sockets never stray
I feel the weight of every pain
For sins I’ll never repay

Yet fear I hold not of the grave
For what lies beyond must be faced
And when I fall, with souls I gave
Their laughter will greet me, interlaced