Viriditas

Sprague Brook

Welcoming

And abundant

Comforting

And just

So

Easy

But the days grow shorter

And I know

What’s

Coming

This land

Is Winter’s lover

For months on end

This land adapts

And prepares

It embraces Winter

Stands tall

With arms stretched wide

And says

Welcome back

I welcome you in

What’s here

Does not

Could not

Survive without you

And the Earth here

And the white of Winter

Join together

For a time

In a patient dance

That’s gone on

Since the beginning

Together,

They sink into

A deep, frigid,

And restful slumber

That leaves me

Restless

With only the sweetest rose hips

To savor

Ice

And streets buried under snow

The weakest sunlight imaginable

And gray

Gray everything

Gray everywhere

Only the songs of wind,

Crows,

And chickadees

To be heard

While the land rests

Meanwhile,

I spend the cold days dreaming about

These lolling, August days

Filled with bird song

And yes

The bugs

I resist

And builds walls of cold

Of my own

Jaded by memories

Of jade green leaves

In the summer

And yet

Here I am

Ready to shorten Winter’s hold on me

And all I can think about

Are reasons to regret

Doing just that