winter #69

winter’s
discontent
lies in snow unfallen
none of it expected
any time soon

solstice drums
beat a tempo of anger
as the season turns in on itself
and the darkness at its heart
no longer freezes the ice
that fixed the world
in its stillness

winter’s discontent
is now fire in the heart
a fire in the upper atmosphere
and forests burning like matchwood
or torn from the earth to build
bridges to nowhere

© BH, 2019

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It was, I recall, a Poetry24 FB challenge to write something titled ‘Winter’.

Gloucester’s line from Richard III - ‘now is the winter of our discontent’… is never far from my mind. But now ‘winter’ and ‘discontent’ have taken on other meanings.

The season is changed and still changing, the drums of anger persist in their futile beating and the world is on fire. Now is the winter of our discontent.

- – — o O o — – -

Poetry24 FB submission - 23 Dec 2019 – challenge on the theme WINTER. References.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7819329/Heathens-greetings-Drum-banging-druids-join-thousands-marking-Winter-Solstice-Stonehenge.html

https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/everything-you-need-to-know-about-about-the-2019-winter-solstice-1.4740030