On the Shortest Night of the Year
by Mollye Barrett

It is not so dark, this night.
The birds have sung from dusk
to almost dawn now
announcing her Eminence,
Summer.
I could not sleep -
the dark was too bright with hours
of lightening and hints of sun
like shadows of the Good Queen Mab.
Night, awake with the thunder of her power
and the fall of her footsteps in rain
watched the spirit of Winter pass
into Spring and die tonight of Summer.
Go cold spirits, die for a while
til Summer has played all her birdsongs,
her rainfalls and sunlit short-nights.

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On the Shortest Night of the Year © Mollye Barrett 2005