Solstice Solitude

Solstice Solitude

by Laurie Benson

inspired by Mary Oliver, watercolors, 

time alone, Venus and Saturn.

 I think you see this too,

Venus, the only planet

I can find

without help,

now dangling

underneath a

smaller pearl,

like a pair of earrings

I wear to be fancy.

One small diamond

and a pearl which

catches light

when I turn my

head to look.

The darkness is

not complete, says

Mary, and I paint

the dark, leaving

a bright center

which says, 

"Don't look back,

come quick," but

I am not quick,

not anymore.

I have been slowed

in my pursuit

of leaving.  Home

now, always home,

and lonely.

But still,

in almost every

window, a single

candle burns.

I know you are

in there, behind

the lights, the 

hopeful lights

you strung on

your trees.  Were

those for me?

On the shortest

day of the year, will

it feel short? When we

all look together to

see the Morning

Star, being ringed? 

The memory of my

own words, "that will

happen when the

planets align."

And now,

I anticipate the

irony of that

happening.

Please don't take

down the tiny,

white lights, on

evergreens and

pines. I wait for

dark to walk the

streets, past

your house to

see the candle

in every

window, because

these are

dark times,

and you have

brought the light.