December, Cutting the Tree
Shadows on canvas of snow
dancing, eye-catching –
winter’s flowers.
No matter how brilliant the sunlight,
in the cold under the trees
night holds its own.
We bring the spruce home
because it carries this darkness:
a green nearly black.
*
Winter Solstice
Despite the word’s meaning,
the sun does not stop
though we do, into nameless dark:
Here’s the reminder.
*
Maria Berardi’s poems have appeared online, in print, in university literary journals, meditation magazines, and at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities. Her first book, Cassandra Gifts, was published in 2013 by Turkey Buzzard Press, and she is currently at work on her second, Pagan, from which these poems are excerpted. She lives in Colorado at precisely 8,888 feet above sea level.
