Celebrating the Inevitable

The fading sunlight
streams in wanly
one December afternoon,
and soon
the downward pull
is irresistible.

The snow is still new,
the white replaced the grey
last Sunday
and I could celebrate
the onset of winter
on a magical street
festooned with coloured lights,
even the shops
and the shopping
seemed graceful,
not hives of frenzied action
multiplying transactions
in search of
some kind of
satisfaction

and getting to clinging
to just about everything
the smell of wood smoke
was wafting through the air

before settling
upon clothing,
upon hair
and faces

I could celebrate
the onset of winter
with boyish wonder

Funny how young
I can feel,
and how old

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