The Winter of 2023

By Christopher Bernard

The winter of 2022
a wind of iron and crystal blew.

In spring a gale attacked the park
Shredding his last piece of heart.

In summer’s dead zone he did dwell
Till rain and frost bathed fever’s hell.

Now winter has come round again.

The twisting seasons never end.

The winter of 2023
A white hand swept across the sea.

A palace of ice rose in the east,
Towers of snow in a waste of peace.

The year before it leaves a scar
Of fire and talisman of war.

It leaves behind a memory
Sweet and bitter as dark honey.

_____

Christopher Bernard’s latest collection of poems, A Socialist’s Garden of Verses, won a 2021 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award and was named one of Kirkus Reviews’ “Top 100 Indie Books of 2021.”