learned to love winter again

every snowflake falling against my flesh
feels like a piece of heaven kissing me,

all the moments i missed with the people
i loved suddenly don't matter because
they're with me giving me strength and love
and laughter and joy i didn't know i needed;

i have learned to love the snow again—

remember when we were all children making
snow angels in the snow, catching snowflakes
on our tongues, and dancing in the snow as we
spun around and found ourselves in different 
universes?

i have found my joy again in the snow,
and i find that winter is not as cruel as i once
thought he was; he's actually always
been a friend—i just haven't always realized
that his gifts were gifts instead of curses.

by Linda M. Crate

Linda M. Crate’s poetry, short stories, articles, and reviews have been published in a myriad of magazines both online and in print. She has ten published chapbooks the latest being: Hecate’s Child (Alien Buddha Publishing, November 2021) and three micro-chapbooks Heaven Instead (Origami Poems Project, May 2018), moon mother (Origami Poems Project, March 2020), and & so I believe (Origami Poems Project, April 2021). She is also the author of the novella Mates (Alien Buddha Publishing, March 2022).

photo credit: Kevin Blanzy