Winter Soul

Short days
dwindling
long nights.

Click click click
something goes
caught in the wheel.

Echos calling
clearing our throat
of cold and colds.

Short nights
I will welcome
your retreat

as do the seeds
chilled in the mud
cells stirring to almost still

short days
farewell.

Short days
dwindling
long nights

here marks the change
the sun I watched die tonight
after now less sleeps

tomorrow
is a new day
another in long chain
of first days
circle after circle
stopping and starting
in a night like this.

Each long run
finds its own rest
then rises again.