Winter is coming quickly to Alaska. Frost rimes the plants on the muskeg and gale force winds blew down most of the bright leaves on the few maples in town. The dark season is coming..
Winter showed up yesterday
slouching in his open coat.
“hey, Winter” I say,
“I didn’t expect you quite so soon.
I’ve seen Darkness hanging around
and your dogs
Snow and Frost
ran across the yard
but aren’t you a little early?”
Winter smiled a leafless smile,
shrugs, and turns away asking
“Didn’t you miss me?”
over his frozen shoulder.
I feel ice crystals forming
deep in my bones.
First, I learned a new word (rime), and then playmates for the cat with little feet capture my imagination.
I whisper toward the leafless smile, “Yes!” and turn away, hoping none have overheard, and hurry off to read again a favorite Denise Levertov poem, Overland to the Islands:
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