The Winter Beast

Cold!
Relentlessly
biting my flesh,
chilling my bones

At the very thought
of it's presence I tense
I gird my loins
as warriors have done
before every battle in history

Prepared for the worst
triple-layered
taught muscles
hunched shoulders
One heavily-socked step at a time
I enter it's realm

The Beast attacks;
When it's first breath
surrounds me
finds every chink in my armour
finds the most minute patch
of exposed skin
I falter

The covering
the preparation,
the hunched-back gait
all for naught
I've lost again
to the Winter beast