Winter Solstice

Editor’s Note: A version of this piece was previously published in the Indiana Voice Journal.

I wake while it’s dark
and lie in bed waiting,
eager to welcome wan rays.
Dawn delays.

I rise, brew coffee, press
my husband’s shirt and pants
as a boys’choir warbles on the radio.
Light lags.

Without warning, sunrise.
Snow turns gray
blue
white.

It’s hard to keep watch
when two-thirds of day
is night.