<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);">Before Winter Solstice, I Remember</div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><br></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);">This, too, is what we are born for,</div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);">this waking in darkness, unable</div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);">to <span class="html-span xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r xexx8yu x4uap5 x18d9i69 xkhd6sd x1hl2dhg x16tdsg8 x1vvkbs" style="margin: 0px; text-align: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><a tabindex="-1" class="html-a xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r xexx8yu x4uap5 x18d9i69 xkhd6sd x1hl2dhg x16tdsg8 x1vvkbs" style="color: rgb(56, 88, 152); cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; text-align: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"></a></span>see, but still able to hear the shush</div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);">of wind in bare branches, able to feel</div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);">the charge of our heartbeat, the swell</div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);">of our belly as it fills with borrowed air.</div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);">I have spent my life learning to love</div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);">these shapeless hours before the light</div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);">finds us, these shadowsome nights when</div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);">my whole being seems to stretch beyond</div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);">the bed, beyond the room, beyond the home,</div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);">beyond the valley, beyond even the globe,</div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);">as if I rhyme with the dark all around us,</div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);">the dark that holds us, the dark that surrounds</div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);">this whole swirling spiral of galaxy.</div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);">Sometimes, I feel how that infinite darkness</div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);">calls to the darkness inside me as if to say,</div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);">remember, remember where you come from,</div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);">remember what you are. And the darkness</div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);">inside me sings back.</div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><br></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer</div></div></body></html>