A Village Winter Night

The cold grasp of January holds us tonight, And already, I long for misty June mornings, With thick tropical air clinging to your skin, And early sunrises that swallow you whole. The slanted drab winter daylight is miniscule, And long gone are July’s lingering dusk nights. Gone for now are radiant new pastel flowers, And summer scents that hover in a quiet still. How long ago it all seems now in the chill air, Dancers, once greeted by a lingering hazy sun, And the soft flowing summer dresses that wave And spread like wings, on a starlit, vernal night. Tonight, summer fades into a distant horizon, Beyond reach, on this cold steel January night. A waning grey Wolf Moon rises in the east sky, And dancers huddle close, in heavy dark clothes. But I find there is beauty here in winter’s throes, In days of brevity, ending before they ever begin, In the returning crowds, filled with humming life, And in the soft melodies, floating in the crisp air. The crowd tonight overflows the Town Square, All closely linked, like pieces of the same puzzle, A jigsaw of humanity, joining on common ground, And finding ways to embrace winter’s stark beauty.