but one man loved the pilgrim soul in you

The only common
sense that remains to us is touch,
as it will be, later, some other
century, when we will seem to each other
even less what we were.
But that trick is just to hold on
through all appearances; and so we do,
and yes, I know it’s you;
and that is what we will come to, sooner
or later, when it’s even darker
than It is now, when the snow is colder,
when it’s darkest and coldest
and candles are no longer any use to us
and the visibility is zero: Yes.
It’s still you. It’s still you.

“Shapechangers in Winter”, Margaret Atwood

Long winters in purgatory: the landscape turns to frost, the forests turn skeletal and silent, the nights howl, and even the dead cease moving.

(Source: another-death)