January

The days are short, / The sun a spark
Hung thin between / The dark and dark.

Fat snowy footsteps / Track the floor,
And parkas pile up / Near the door.

The river is / A frozen place
Held still beneath / The trees’ black lace.

The sky is low. / The wind is gray.
The radiator / Purrs all day.”

― John Updike (American novelist, poet and literary critic, 1932 – 2009; in A Child’s Calendar)

Shared by Betty Hanselman
Gardener’s wife (& January joy seeker)