Solstice flirts with us from only days in the future

Where night will creep into the afternoon like the farthest reaching wave lapping the sand at high tide

Death has been coming, life has been going, not a seed in the garden’s left growing

Earth's lungs are exhaling, waiting for the pause at the bottom

In the pause is goodbye

Not yet a hello, trying to loosen my grip, my grasping, unfold, let go

There’s a winter in my heart and I curl into her

Always looking for warmth, aching, tightening my grip and grasping, holding on

Let the shiver taker over, cold in the toes that stand frozen in the pause

Waiting and letting go

Dying to the seasons that bid us farewell

Dying to the untouched hopes that slipped through the fingers of busy days

Dying to the torment of separation

Dying and letting go

Nothing grows here in the pause. There’s no sound but God's knocking as a silent wind

Let us wait here with empty bellies and let hunger come

We’ll fill our lungs, our bellies, our hearts once again

But now’s not the time for fullness. Now is the time for winter

Emptiness and letting go