Dear December

I found you –

a thin shawl upon nature’s shoulders

resting on the final page of my Gregorian calendar.

Celebrations in red,

Christmas and Kwanza

and the tail end of Hanukah.

Reminding me in stark black letters

of bombings and declarations of war.

Hitler and Mussolini and Japan…

*Dear December was first published in the short story A Hard Candy Christmas. The audiobook is narrated by Julie Gayden Nelson who does a beautiful recital.