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Hibernal Solstice
Jan 19, 2022
Shadows invade
his lightness of being
when the sun’s too lazy
to climb very far
above the horizon
Amid the holidays’ twinkle
and sparkle, the night
wraps him into
a cyclical cocoon
where he will barely eat
barely speak
barely answer
his steadfast wife
whose loneliness will flow
into rivers of sorrow
dammed by hope
But even hope can’t
hold a constant deluge
When he re-emerges
with the energized sun,
he’ll have missed her
little bits of heaven —
the moments of happiness
she’ll craft from emptiness
She won’t mention
how her poetry saved
them — each poem
a surrogate sun
This poem was recently published in Scribes*MICRO*Fiction’s January 2022 issue.
