Winter Solstice (rev)

Brevity’s the curse
of a poet writing verse
in Winter solstice:

a sad mendicant’s
acrid medicine, begging
bowl of Winter’s cheer,

seasonal owl starved
of mice-thoughts and winged prey
fallen from Summer’s grace,

skeletal remains
of once fat contemplation
chancing Winter’s ire,

scant leavings of the
feasting in plenitude, bare
bones of Winter’s whim.
© 8 January 2007, I.D. Carswell 2007