Special Selection for the 2022/2023 Winter Holiday Issue
Poetry by RC deWinter
last christmas eve
it was just us
misfits in a jigsaw world
neither of us believe
so we sent words
backandforthandbackandforth
about ourselves
how we’d lived
who we’d loved
what we hoped for
it was so much better
than being alone on a night
we’ve been conditioned
to expect should be
merry and bright
with song and candles
food and drink
the smiling faces
of the families we never had
so we faked it and it worked
eventually an ocean of regret
washed away the lighthouse
i don’t see you shining out there
in the northern night
and i’m thinking
you’re not even looking for me
this christmas eve
i’ll be sitting in that same chair
holding that same phone
listening to nothing but the wind
singing a frigid dirge
down the chimney
rattling windows
rattling bones
remembering you
RC deWinter’s poetry is widely anthologized, notably in New York City Haiku (NY Times/2017), The Connecticut Shakespeare Festival Anthology (River Bend Bookshop Press, 12/2021) in print: 2River View, the minnesota review, Plainsongs, Prairie Schooner, Southword, Twelve Mile Review, York Literary Review among others and appears in numerous online publications.
