Winter Solstice

someone burns paper money in the street 
it’s the day of the winter solstice 
flames light up the trees that line the road 
we, the living, turn ourselves in shadows 
so as to get closer to the departed dead 
in streets, at the foot of walls, in the courtyard of houses where our 
dear ones once lived 
loss and remorse bring home to us the existence 
of another world 
as dark as the earth 
as agile and warm as flames

WINTER SOLSTICE