Another year rises
In the silence of fresh fallen snow
Uncommon for this time of year
This snow-cradled midnight welcomes
A new beginning as eyes refocus
On December, on the hours mothers labored
To bring us into this world
A world people both dread, and dream of, leaving
Today, our vision is better than a newborn’s but not by much
The white and chocolate brown bark of trees blends, blurs into the charcoal grey skies
A minimalist marble of neutral color
How children would’ve fought to see this midnight
How fascinating they would find the sky and the way it never gets fully dark
Adult now, we get to explore the newness
Of winter and of the first magic I knew
Of cold and of heat
Snowbanks as tall as a Buick
An actual fire crackling in the hearth
Cocoa poured into snowmen cups
With peppermint spoons
All over again
This December
Everything we have known of life
Finds its way back to the earth
I wonder what more I will know
Who I will meet
What I might do
How I’ll leave tracks behind
In new places, latent as
A child’s first steps in the snow
