Where are you winter?
Where the scouring winds
and white-rimed leaves,
hold-overs from last season's arboreal couture?
Where the leveling whiteness,
the inward-driving respite
from summer's relentless restlessness?

Where are you winter?

Our warm outerwear waits in darkness,
wondering, worried;
a feeling of abandonment settles like dust
on the shelf of mittens and scarves, gloves and wooly caps.
"What of us?" they whisper–
momentarily hopeful, always disappointed–
each time the closet door opens…then shuts.

Where are you winter?

We won't know spring
without your crusty, glittering stillness.

Photo and text copyright 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.