from · the north · winter · beaufort 5

the white wind

the white wind is dry north air that has crossed snow without warming. it arrives clean. it has no smell, only an absence of smell, which is its own kind of report. frost follows it in by a day; snow precedes it by an hour or never at all.

it carries nothing. the corridor windows on the north side, in its hour, will not steam under a cup. radiators come on twice and click off twice, and the building takes a breath it had been holding. small papers, left on north sills, are found by morning at the foot of the door — moved an even foot, in a straight line.

indoors the white wind is the absence of indoor sound. the ticking of the clock sharpens; the hum of the refrigerator becomes a note you can hold. it is the wind under which vigil is most easily kept.

field note · i · on the third day of the white wind, the cold in the north stairwell took the shape of the stairwell. you could walk into and out of it.

january · chimney · nameless · frost · atmospheres