December at Middle Creek Ranch

The solstice sliced us suddenly,
a raging and lonely cold,
a year not going gentle.

Darkness blanketed the hills,
just as the coyotes warned us;
their ancient whines haunted the hollow.

In the pen, a stillness swallowed the herd,
and crunching hooves halted —
their fecund scent, a slow rising. 

Then the wind stirred.
It panicked and rattled at the glass,
retreated, circled, and railed again.

But that farmhouse folded us in —
welcoming and warm,
weathered but weathering.

Need more cozy wintry reads? Check we’ve got loads of holiday and seasonal content to help you snuggle in with your hygge hopes.

• Holiday Refrain – Creative Nonfiction
• December Book Roundup
• Peppermint Mocha Coffee – My Favorite Things
• Chorus of the Waiting – Christmas Eve Speculative Fiction
• A Matter of Tradition – Personal Essay

Lesley Sieger-Walls

+ postsBio

As a rural Kansas native, Lesley Sieger-Walls finds her poetic inspirations along the back roads of the Flint Hills. She holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and teaches at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, her current home. Her poetry has been published in Book of Matches, New Feathers Anthology, and Capsule Stories, among other publications.

This author does not have any more posts.