Heart broken she withdraws
as every winter
into dark soil
as every winter
The promise of the stars nightly turning
the sinking and turning of constellations
the track of planets wandering across the sky
say that she will return
Time past she was encouraged
by midwinter fires
now we trust to orbital mechanics
Copyright © 2019 Kim Whysall-Hammond
The Cheesesellers Wife 
The modern mind must still account for the dying of the year — its hope now rooted in “orbital mechanics” where one it was faith in solstice fire. Amen.
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I can see those vast skies, as the world turns towards its next season. Lovely work.
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Thanks Sherry!
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Your poem captures the profundity of what it means to alive now. Simple things like a fire in the hearth in mid winter have been replaced by a technological world that often seems completely alien.
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I would not know how to light a fire in a hearth –and my house was built in 1970 with no chimneys…..
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Despite the fact we live in a world of ‘orbital mechanics’ we still have that connection to the ancient world as (perhaps better) understood by our ancestors. You have captured this idea beautifully. Summer will indeed return.
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Hotter and hotter…..
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Beautifully done, Kim. So many of us have withdrawn and will do again, trusting in the ‘orbital mechanics’ as our ancestors did. Spring and summer will be proof that we can survive.
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