“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 familywill learn
their first
Christmas
without you.
They will mark your passinglike an advent calendar.
I haven’t put upmy tree
this year
haven’t
hung up my lights,
as though
I already knew
some light
would flicker out.
I didn’t knowit would be yours.
There is solacein the night sky
stars punching out the black
begging light to come through.
There is solacein 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 factwe celebrate the end of your life
on the darkest
day of the year.

Lynne Schmidt is the grandchild of a Holocaust survivor, and a mental health professional. She is the winner of the 2021 The Poetry Question Chapbook Contest, 2020 New Women’s Voices Contest. Lynne is the author of the chapbooks, SexyTime (forthcoming 2022) Dead Dog Poems, Gravity, and On Becoming a Role Model. When given the choice, Lynne prefers the company of her three dogs and one cat to humans.
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