December 9.
When did the month arrive, October and its leaves rushed past me just yesterday.
I’ve not seen the snow since I was barely a teen.
Powdered branches just outside my window.
My eye closes wearily. All of me is exhausted from the past days’ loving. Fall did not come in November; December fell, it fell silently into my life.

— *L, from the journal “Winter And Its Waking Breath