Today, in the safety of noon’s optimism
I allowed my thoughts to return to December
Though I never felt her winter,
I knew, she was colder than most.
Children built snowmen,
From my window, I watched
Carrots that once served as noses,
Sinking in sleet.
December’s evenings brought
Uncles, Aunts, Cousins, Friends.
They all came to say hello and goodbye.
Some hellos were the first in years
Their goodbyes, surely, the last.
And when dawn arrived,
New snowmen were built.
Some with twigs as arms,
And others,
without.
Their coal eyes longing for limbs
To move freely, as humans should.
Day by day, I watched snowmen melt
Drooping eyes, withering arms
And silly scarves.
From my window,
I wondered what it would be like,
To be rooted in one spot
A mouth full of pebbles
And memories evaporating like snow
Maria del Canto has been published in the literary magazine The Battered Suitcase as well as New York University’s journal for creative writing.
