the shortest day is swallowed by the longest night
and though the time is festive we can close the darkness out in sleep
until we rise again to greet the waking light
*
last night’s cold moon is waning gibbous and the town shines bright
and while the spreading mist and frost grow thick and deep
the shortest day is swallowed by the longest night
*
we walk this world we wish for warmth and all that’s pleasing to our sight
but nightmare deepfake monsters of perverted dreams disturb us in our sleep
until we rise again to greet the waking light
*
O pity our poor planet filled with foolish deathly viral agents mired in their own shite
they rave and squall around our godforsaken earth and even as we weep
the shortest day is swallowed by the longest night
*
but there’s a ruthless aimless tenderness in nature’s creatures and in you that rare delight
we find when we’re alert to each mere moment whose uniqueness we can keep
until we rise again and greet the waking light
*
now in the southern hemisphere the sun shines at her height
but we are locked in dark and where the shadows creep
the shortest day is swallowed by the longest night
until we rise again and greet the lengthening light.
*
**
*
freddie omm
Happy Solstice to you!
Likewise, Luisa, May Love lift you!
This is a striking and moving villanelle about the season of darkness giving way to one of light; it has a strong under- or overcurrent about experiencing the kind of melancholia or depressiveness that can be overcome—when it can—through meditation of the passing of time within consciousness.