Christmas in Cedar, not long ago
Painting by Linda Alice Dewey.
Linda Alice Dewey’s painting “Christmas in Cedar, not long ago” is a collaboration with Anne-Marie Oomen’s poem, “Solstice”
Solstice
By Anne-Marie Oomen
Was it wrong to cancel the moon
so near the Solstice when light
slinks off by mid-afternoon?
–
It comes on now, that other light,
light without source, faded except
for the butcher’s legacy sign
–
coupled with the spicy scent
of sausage over snow. The market,
still open, lures you in: local cheese,
–
range of fine wines, too fine—merchant
succumbs to dabbling with you, and talks
of the good old moon. Such things,
–
once common, are now short-lived:
families arrive and leave, vendors
once thriving, disappear, and at that
–
window of the Emporium, a necklace
glimmers over a plastic Santa Claus,
leftover from a farmer’s auction.
–
To cancel the moon means to pocket
the lined box, means getting lost
on the way home, means veering,
–
finding your way by the bark
of a neighbor’s dog. It is not the path
you thought to trod. But you do.
–
Sun or moon, it does not matter;
what matters is getting home in winter,
turning onto that street of old names,
–
believing for that moment in the light
that has no moon, we may enter a room,
offer the small gift strung like stars.
