It drove home hard the place I was in,  my face chapped by winter,

my soul hardened by sin.

I couldn’t feel much at all now.  Could see even less.

I’d seen enough.

A church bell rings in the distance haunting echoes resound.

I recall a time when I knew the joy of that.

Was that a thousand lives ago?

I drop the bottle,

Snow crunches under the step I take

toward the sound.