“Solstice” (Winter Contest Winner)

by Lynne Schmidt

By the time your name

has made headlines

they have already pulled your body

from the wreckage.


Comments pour in—

condolences mixed with

seasons greetings

and collective grief.


Your family

will learn

their first

Christmas

without you.


They will mark your passing

like an advent calendar.


I haven’t put up

my tree

this year

haven’t 

hung up my lights,

as though

I already knew

some light

would flicker out.


I didn’t know 

it would be yours.


There is solace

in the night sky

stars punching out the black

begging light to come through.


There is solace

in the knowledge that 

the last time we were in person

I wrapped my arms around you

and told you

I loved you. 


Solace in the fact

we celebrate the end of your life

on the darkest

day of the year.

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