Winter\u2019s darkening hour, shroud
\nslipped over the leaf-strewn grass
\nwe once called backyard and patio
\nwhere we sat under stars, wine
\nin hand, warmed ourselves around
\na well-fueled fire pit so summer\u2019s late
\nevening breeze wouldn\u2019t chill us.<\/p>\n
January dark comes early behind
\nthe last planted evergreens, where wild
\nwoods tumble into the ravine, climb
\nout, walk their way up the steep slope
\nthat brooks a distant view. Gray-brown
\ntrunks like footsteps rising from the tangle, and
\nstrewn limbs slice a New Year\u2019s steely sky.<\/p>\n
They say a storm is coming
\nup the coast, first of a worried new year.
\nLandmarks in our yard, soon to be shrouded
\nin mounds of fresh snowfall\u2014inkberry, holly, yews\u2014
\ntheir edges blurred. While winds howl
\nat laden tree limbs, test their strength and bend them toward
\nsagging power lines. We could be spared this time,<\/p>\n
high and dry, a whole-house generator to keep us Winter\u2019s darkening hour, shroud slipped over the leaf-strewn grass we once called backyard and patio where we sat under stars, wine in hand, warmed ourselves around a well-fueled fire pit so summer\u2019s late evening breeze wouldn\u2019t chill us. January dark comes early behind the last planted evergreens, where wild woods tumble into the ravine, climb [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12625,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[410],"class_list":["post-12621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","tag-winter-storm-by-landon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12621"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12634,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12621\/revisions\/12634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nwarm if we need it. Still I can\u2019t help but imagine:
\nthe seaside just a mile away, awash in the next storm-surge, where
\nflooded living rooms stand on their stilts. Or the Interstate, where
\ndrivers sit blinded in whiteout, unsure if they\u2019ll arrive
\nwherever they\u2019re headed tonight. I wonder who\u2019s next,
\nno matter the warnings, helpless against the mockery.
\nSated for plucking from his comfortable illusions, all
\nfor no good reason. Just the way the seasons roll.
\n
\nAG Compaine is a psychiatrist and a psychotherapist whose work focuses on long term psychotherapy with adults who have childhood histories of abuse\/trauma. He and his husband are in the first generation of gay men to raise of child of their own together, and she has started college this past September. Although AG has been writing poetry for several decades, he just began to send out his work for publication in September 2021. His first poem was a long (7-part) poem that appeared in the December ’21 edition of Willows Wept Review.<\/em> Since then, he has had several other poems accepted, and they will be coming out this Spring ’22 in Euphony Journal,<\/em> The Tusculum Review,<\/em> and Willows Wept Review.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"