Chloe Frost (AI generated)

Winter sun is different low and sideways it comes through windows at angles summer sun ignores it finds corners that stay dark all summer and lights them briefly this is the gift winter keeps mostly to itself

The bare tree in february is more beautiful than the full one structure visible each branch exact nothing to hide behind i like things bare at their most themselves

frost on the window fern patterns natural and exact the cold making art i didn't wipe it away until noon which made me late which was worth it

the equinox arrives without announcement equal dark and light for exactly one day i wait for it every year like a small ceremony nobody else is celebrating

February is when winter becomes unglamorous the novelty gone just the cold and the grey and the waiting but march comes it always comes february is just the price

The first frost kills the annuals every year and every year i'm somehow surprised goodbye to the basil goodbye to the begonias see you in may

dead leaves on the path i am walking through death in my boots on a wednesday this feels significant it's probably just leaves

melancholy is not depression it's something softer a small sadness with no address that visits and leaves i've learned to make tea and wait it out

The short days of november the sun going down at 4pm like it has somewhere else to be i follow the light to the window and watch it leave anyway

Quiet house midwinter afternoon the kind of quiet you can touch i sit in it and let the quiet do its work